Exploring the New CR880x Hardware Revision

Information about new CR880x hardware appeared on the Chinese Right.com.cn forum in late 2023. Some Vietnamese shops have since received this revision. I have not personally handled this version, so this article collects information from forum reports. Let us see what changed.

The information comes from CR8808 units reported by users on right.com.cn.

The new revision ships with firmware 1.4.01 for CR8808 and 7.0.1 for CR8806. The management interface identifies it as CR8808 VER.B, codename CR8818. It does not share firmware with the older CR8808 revision.

Motherboard

The most notable changes are the CPU and switch IC.

The old CR880x uses an IPQ5000 with 256Mb of integrated RAM. The new version uses IPQ5018, like Xiaomi models including the Redmi AX5400 and AX6000. IPQ5018 uses a separate RAM chip outside the CPU, which should reduce CPU temperature.

The VER.B switch is MOTORCOMM YT9215S instead of the older QCA8337.

As on the old revision, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi is integrated into the IPQ5018 (2x2, 574Mbps) and amplified by the same MXD7223 FEM.

The 5GHz radio is QCN6102 (2x2, 2402Mbps), amplified by an RTC66568 FEM.

The new revision boots faster because it uses separate RAM rather than RAM integrated into the CPU, significantly improving RAM performance. Most other aspects are almost the same as the old revision.

Domestic AX3000 RA81 and global AX3000 RA82 (tower) ROMs have been tested and run stably on the new CR880x VER.B.

Online ROM flashing for all CR880x VER.A and VER.B units costs 50k per session, with free updates when a new version is released. A PC with a LAN port is enough; no USB-to-TTL adapter is required. (Service suspended.)