Inside Story
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: review, p2000wv2
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Product Details
- 3. Inside Story
- 4. In Use
3. Inside Story
The v2's FCC ID indicates that ZyXEL OEMs the phone from BCM Communication in Taiwan, which refers to the phone as the WLAN660.
Figure 3 shows that the v2 has a TI TMS320VC5472 at its core. This chip is a dual CPU processor that includes a TMS320C54x-series DSP and an ARM7TDMI RISC MCU. Note that the link above points to the page for the 5471 since there's no page for the 5472, but the parts are most likely very similar. Note also that's a metric tape measure you see in Figure 3.
Figure 3: P2000W v2 internal view
(click image to enlarge)
Figure 4 is a close-up of the v2's radio, which is implemented as a plug-in board and based on 
Figure 4: P2000W v2 radio board
(click image to enlarge)
The v2's radio section has three weaknesses, which could limit its use in enterprise, if not SOHO use:
it is 802.11b only, which means that the phone will cause a throughput hit to 802.11g networks due to the 802.11b protection mechanism that must be employed by 11g networks to accomodate 11b devices it supports only 64 / 128 bit WEP for wireless security and not the more secure WPA or WPA2 mechanisms, or even 802.1x-based authentication it has a relatively low 14.3 dBm / 27 mW maximum transmit power and receive sensitivity (-82 dBm) which can limit its effective rangeFinally, although the radio board has mini-connectors for two antennas, Figure 3 shows that only one non-extendable antenna is connected.
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