EVK-ELLA-W1 - User Guide
UBX-15012877 - R04
Early Production Information
Software
Page 11 of 24
4
Software
The ELLA-W1 module series is based on the Marvell Avastar 88W8787 chipset and it supports both simultaneous
and independent operations of:
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n (simultaneous client/station, access point and Wi-Fi Direct operation)
Bluetooth v3.0+HS (also compliant with Bluetooth v2.1+EDR).
The ELLA-W1 modules connect to the host processor through an SDIO interface.
From the software point of view, the ELLA-W1 series modules contain only calibration data and basic operation
settings in an on-board EEPROM and thus require a host-side driver and a firmware to run. Each base software
package contains the following:
A firmware image that has to be downloaded to the module on system start and
A driver, which is placed between the bus driver(s) and the attached network stacks.
Various control tools are also included optionally.
4.1
Linux driver branches
Currently, the following three different driver branches are available for the Linux operating system:
Marvell automotive drivers (firmware versions 14.44.xx)
Marvell non-automotive Linux/Android drivers (firmware versions 14.66.xx)
Open source drivers (mwifiex driver from Linux-mainline)
The Software section of this manual describes only the Marvell reference drivers, which can be
obtained through u-blox support. The open source drivers are not officially supported by
u-blox.
The automotive and non-automotive driver branches support the main features like parallel access point, station
and Wi-Fi Direct operation, and Bluetooth. Refer to the Release Notes that is bundled with each driver release for
a list of supported driver features. Generally it is recommended to use the robust automotive drivers for non-
automotive projects.
4.1.1
Sleep clock restrictions
The following conditions are applicable for the
automotive firmware
:
No 32 kHz sleep clock is required.
If no sleep clock is designed in, then the automotive driver/firmware release must be used, as this alone
supports a configuration without sleep clock.
The following conditions are applicable for
general purpose applications
:
Use of an external 32 kHz sleep clock is mandatory.
Any driver/firmware release can be used with the above configuration.
The 32 kHz sleep clock is used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low-power modes. Hence, a design without an external
sleep clock will have restricted Wi-Fi power saving capabilities and no Bluetooth power saving modes. In this
case, the automotive firmware release must be used.
4.2
Driver and firmware architecture
The software for the ELLA-W1 modules is split into the following parts:
The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth driver, running on the host system
The device firmware, which runs on the module itself
The host drivers interface with the bus drivers and upper layer protocol stacks of the Linux system.
4.2.1
Wi-Fi driver
The basic architecture of the Wi-Fi subsystem is typical of a thick firmware architecture, where the Wi-Fi
firmware handles all 802.11 MAC management tasks.
