ASRock gave its Socket LGA1700 motherboard lineup, specifically those based on the Z790 chipset, a mid-lifecycle refresh with the introduction of four new motherboard models. These include the new Z790 Taichi Lite, Z790 Phantom Gaming Riptide WiFi7, Z790 Nova WiFi7, and the Z790 LiveMixer. The Z790 Taichi Lite heralds a new sub-brand in ASRock's motherboard product stack. This provides the core feature-set of the top Taichi, such as CPU VRM and overclocking capabilites, but tones down on the aesthetic, and some I/O connectivity. Interestingly, the Taichi Lite sticks with older WiFi 6E connectivity, besides a Killer 2.5 GbE + Intel 2.5 GbE wired network. The onboard audio solution is fairly slick, featuring a Realtek ALC4082 codec, an ESS Sabre 9218 DAC for the front-out, and WIMA audio capacitors.

In related news, ASRock also extended the Taichi Lite brand to the AMD platform, by debuting the B650E Taichi Lite, with a powerful CPU VRM that's comparable to that of the X670E Taichi, and a nifty I/O that includes WiFi 6E, Killer 2.5 GbE wired networking, and the same exact onboard audio solution as the Z790 Taichi Lite. The Z790 Phantom Gaming Nova is intended to be the most premium Phantom Gaming series motherboard in the product stack, although positioned a notch below the Z790 Taichi (although above the Z790 Taichi Lite on account of its features). You get the most powerful CPU VRM solution among the company's Phantom Gaming motherboards, a neat, illuminated common heatsink for M.2 drives other than the topmost Gen 5 (which gets a chunkier heatsink), and plenty of overclocker-friendly features. It has a more advanced set of network connectivity than the Taichi series, with 5 GbE wired networking, and the latest WiFi 7. Interestingly, the onboard audio is simpler, with just the ALC4082 handling all channels (no ESS DAC).

MSI is ready with a major refresh of its Socket LGA1700 motherboard lineup, in time for Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors that come out later this year. Popular motherboard models in its MEG, MPG, and MAG motherboard lines based on the top Z790 chipset Some of the top models in the lineup introduce support for Wi-Fi 7 and 5 Gbps Ethernet. Among the models we've seen are the MEG Z790 ACE MAX (5 GbE + 2.5 GbE + Wi-Fi 7), the MPG Z790 Edge MAX WiFi (2.5 GbE + Wi-Fi 7), MPG Z790 Carbon MAX WiFi (5 GbE + Wi-Fi 7), and the MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX WiFi (2.5 GbE + Wi-Fi 7). Another set of innovations with these boards include USB 3.2 front-panel headers with 60 W PD capability, screwless M.2 NVMe SSD installation, and at least one Gen 5 NVMe slot. The company also unveiled the USB4 expansion accessory, which puts out two 40 Gbps USB4 type-C ports, along with DisplayPort passthrough, and 100 W PD capability.

For those relying on their ISP for their router, Askey might have good news for you, as the company had a pair of WiFi 7 routers destined for ISPs on display at Computex. The first model might see some retail brand, as it's a bog standard WiFi 7 router based on Qualcomm hardware. It sports no less than three radios with a combined data rate of 18.6 Gbps, although broken down per radio, that's 1,376 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 5,765 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and 11,530 Mbps on the 6 GHz band using a 320 MHz wide channel, all radios being 4x4. It also sports a pair of 10 Gbps, one for WAN and one for LAN and an additional three 2.5 Gbps ports. Other features include mesh support, Bluetooth/ZigBee support and remote management for ISPs.

The second model is for ISPs only and is based on a solution as it's using XGSPON to connect towards the internet. It too gets a 10 Gbps WAN side port, but the integrated switch is only Gigabit. The WiFi 7 radios are configured identically to the model above, but Askey has added support for DECT as well as two VoIP ports on this model, requirements that some ISPs have. It's unclear when either device would hit the market, but it's a first sign that WiFi 7 products shouldn't be too far away.

ASRock, a global leader in motherboards, graphics cards, monitors, and small form factor PCs, is excited to announce its participation in the upcoming COMPUTEX Taipei 2023 after years of anticipation. ASRock will showcase a range of breathtaking innovative products and highly anticipated technology demonstrations. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the ASRock latest products and solutions firsthand; also, get the immersive gaming experience at ASRock booth.

Unveiling the Next-Gen ASRock Monitors
ASRock is set to showcase an exciting lineup of monitors at COMPUTEX 2023, featuring six existing products along with new gaming and business models. The spotlight will be on the PG558KF and PG32UMF, two high-end monitors.

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today launched the first WiFi 7 router with its new addition to the award-winning Nighthawk line. Built by an experienced team with 25+ years of pioneering WiFi expertise, the NETGEAR Nighthawk RS700 Router is spearheading the WiFi 7 revolution. Packed with unprecedented power, the all-new RS700 delivers up to 19 Gbps of blazing-fast WiFi, more than doubling the speed of previous generations.

The WiFi requirements of modern, hyper-connected homes continue to push the boundaries of today's WiFi standards. With the rise of faster multi-gig internet speeds now available to more and more households, the growing number of connected devices per family and the ever-increasing growth of bandwidth hungry 4K/8K video streaming, HD Zoom calls, hybrid collaborative graphics-intensive work, highly interactive real-time gaming and AR/VR applications and experiences, WiFi continues to evolve to support faster speeds, lower latency and increased capacity. While WiFi 6E opened the 6 GHz band as a superhighway for the latest, fastest devices, WiFi 7 makes good on that promise by unleashing unprecedented speeds and performance. Maximizing that power, NETGEAR's RS700 router, powered by Broadcom's BCM6726/3 WiFi 7 system on a chip (SOC), achieves speeds up to 19 Gbps. The tri-band WiFi 7 router, from the creators of tri-band technology, enables a dramatic decrease in latency for real-time responsiveness for next-generation AR/VR gaming or smooth UHD Zoom calls and 8K streaming for multiple simultaneous users.

Qualcomm Technologies' 6th generation modem-to-antenna solution is the first ready to support 5G Advanced, the next phase of 5G. It introduces a new architecture, a new software suite and includes numerous world's first features to push the boundaries of connectivity including coverage, latency, power efficiency and mobility. Snapdragon X75 technologies and innovations empower OEMs to create next generation experiences across segments including smartphones, mobile broadband, automotive, compute, industrial IoT, fixed wireless access and 5G private networks.

Snapdragon X75 is the first Modem-RF System with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator, Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2, enabling over 2.5 times better AI performance compared to Gen 1 and introduces Qualcomm 5G AI Suite Gen 2 with new AI-powered optimizations to achieve better speeds, coverage, mobility, link robustness and location accuracy. The Qualcomm 5G AI Suite features advanced AI-based capabilities including world's first sensor-assisted mmWave beam management and AI-enhanced GNSS Location Gen 2, which uniquely optimize Snapdragon X75 for superior 5G performance.

If you're looking at upgrading to WiFi 7, but don't want a router that looks like a dead bug, then maybe MSI has the router for you, with its upcoming RadiX BE22000 Turbo router. The BE22000 part in the name refers to 802.11be which is the IEEE naming for WiFi 7 and the max theoretical throughput of the router, i.e. 22 Gbps combined across all bands. The RadiX BE22000 Turbo supports 320 MHz channel width, or twice that of WiFi 6 and it's the main reason why WiFi 7 can be so much faster than WiFi 6.

Other features include AI QoS which MSI claims automatically prioritises gaming packets over other types of data packets being sent by the router and it can be configured via a companion app. The RadiX BE22000 Turbo also supports MLO or Multi-Link Operation, which enables supported clients to connect to the router using more than one frequency band for increased throughput. MSI didn't reveal much when it comes to the hardware features of the router, but it does have a pair of 10 Gbps ports, as well as four 2.5 Gbps, making it a better choice than ASUS' recently announced RT-BE96U, which only has Gigabit ports in addition to its two 10 Gbps ports.

ASUS at the 2023 International CES showed off its first gaming-grade next-generation WiFi 7 (802.11be) routers. These include the ASUS RT-BE96U dual-band WiFi 7 router under the company's main marquee, and the ROG Rapture GT-BE98, which the company says is the world's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router. The RT-BE96U features two 10 GbE ports, and has a total network switching bandwidth of 19 Gbps. The router includes a 6 GHz frequency band with 320 MHz radio band and 4096 QAM, which doubles the data-rate over WiFi 6E. The router supports WiFi 7 MLO (multi-link operation), allowing data-transmissions to span multiple frequency bands at the same time. The WLAN module also supports Multi-RU punctuating that works to reduce channel interference. The ROG Rapture GT-BE98 supports nearly all the features of the RT-BE96U, but with a quad-band radio setup, with peak switching bandwidth of 25 Gbps. Besides these, the router gets the distinctive ROG product styling, several game-specific QoS optimizations, game console optimizations, and Aura RGB LED setup that can sync with your PC's Aura setup over network.

ASUS today announced the ROG Rapture GT-BE98, the world's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router, and the ASUS RT-BE96U, a tri-band WiFi 7 router for home and business, at CES 2023. Both routers feature the latest technologies exclusive to WiFi 7, including extended 320 MHz channels in the 6 GHz band, 4K QAM modulation, Multi-Link Operation and Multi-RU Puncturing.

For businesses, ASUS is also unveiling three new ExpertWiFi devices: the EBM68 mesh system, EBR63 router and EBA63 access point, with more networking solutions to follow in the second half of 2023. These devices support the highest number of SSIDs in the industry, self-defined networks, up to 12 mesh nodes, and enterprise-grade network security. Each device can be easily managed using the free ASUS Router mobile app. For locations impacted by thick walls made of brick or concrete, ASUS offers the ZenWiFi Hybrid XC5, the world's first Multimedia over Coaxial (MoCA) mesh router, which provides four ways to connect to hybrid backhauls while supporting up to 2.5 Gbps connections through wired backhauls.

ROG Rapture GT-BE98 is the world's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router. Leveraging the full potential of WiFi 7 with 320 MHz channel support in the 6 GHz band, it delivers up to 160% faster speeds than the previous generation. In addition, with 4K QAM modulation that can pack more data into transmissions, peak data rates are up to 20% higher, delivering incredible speeds of up to 25,000 Mbps. Furthermore, two additional revolutionary features, Multi-Link Operation and Multi-RU Puncturing, allow the GT-BE98 to deliver more efficient and reliable wireless connections.

Multi-link operation simultaneously transmits across different bands and channels to increase throughput to the device, lower the latency, and improve reliability. Multi-RU puncturing segments a wide channel bandwidth into smaller units, enabling puncturing to eliminate interference for the remaining bandwidth and increase efficiency. Gamers can enjoy up to 10X-faster data-transfer speeds for bandwidth-demanding tasks with one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port and two 10 Gbps LAN ports. In addition, for gamers who live in larger homes, the exclusive ASUS RangeBoost Plus improves signal range and overall coverage. And, ROG-exclusive triple-level game acceleration offers fantastic gaming experiences.

TP-Link, a leading global provider of consumer and business networking products, today held an epochal WiFi 7 product launch to announce its WiFi 7 networking solution.

As the world's first vendor to release a full home and enterprise WiFi 7 product line, TP-Link launched new WiFi 7 routers, Deco products, Omada EAPs, and Aginet products for ISP markets to cover all usage scenarios. Additionally, TP-Link's new HomeShield 3.0 provides more reliable and smarter network solutions.

Although Intel threw in the towel and gave up on making routers and gateways back in 2020, the company is still the world's largest manufacturer of WiFi modules for computers. Now news out of Korea suggests that Intel's first WiFi 7 products will be launched in 2024, about a year after the expected availability of the first WiFi 7 routers and gateways. That said, based on a quote from Eric McLaughlin, vice president of Intel's wireless solutions division, who attended an unspecified press conference in the APAC region, Intel "expect it to appear in major markets in 2025." This suggests that it'll be a late 2024 launch and we might see competitors' products in notebooks and PCs way ahead of Intel this time around.

That said, the WiFi 7 standard is currently only in the late stages of development, despite Broadcom, MediaTek and Qualcomm having announced multiple products already. It's likely we'll see another round of draft spec hardware launching either later this year, or next year, with the final WiFi 7 spec not expected to be ratified until 2024. As such, Intel may be later than its competitors, but should hopefully launch a feature complete product. Intel's products should support speeds of up to 5.8 GHz, although this would be using a 320 MHz wide channel and 4K QAM, which means these speeds will be limited to a few meters from a router. WiFi devices have a history of quirky issues between brands, even if none of them have been so severe that a fallback to an older standard hasn't solved the problem, but it's still been a hassle for consumers. Hopefully WiFi 7 won't repeat history, but we wouldn't place a bet on it.

It appears that 2022 might be the year WiFi 7, or 802.11be as it's also known, launches, despite the fact that the specification isn't set to be ratified until 2024. Broadcom has just unveiled its first set of WiFi 7 radios, as well as accompanying SoC and it looks like the new hardware will bring a big jump in performance under the right circumstances. Broadcom's first WiFi 7 SoC will be known as the BCM4916, which sports a quad core ARMv8 processor. It appears to be a custom Broadcom design that's capable of delivering up to 24 DMIPS of performance, but beyond mentioning that it has 1 MB L2 cache and 64 kB L1 cache, Broadcom doesn't go into any specifics.

The Arm based processor is backed up by what Broadcom calls a Dual Issue Runner Network Processor, or DI-XRDP, which is a packet processor that shuffles the data around between the wired and wireless network interfaces. There's also a crypto coprocessor and Broadcom has added support for Arm TrustZone and Secure Boot, with the prior having support for a trusted execution environment. What stands out with regards to the BCM4916 compared to most current router SoCs is the wide arrange of high-speed connectivity options. For starters, it has no less than four PCIe interfaces of unspecified generation, as well as a native 10 Gbps network interface and as well as the option for two more. In addition to this, it has a further option for a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet interface, as well as a typical four port Gigabit switch built in. A pair of USB 3.2 ports are also part of the chip, but these are likely to be 5 Gbps ports. The SoC also has support for DDR3 and DDR4 memory.