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WFA Full Reference Design
Publicly online since 2010 · U.S. patent applications since 2012 · inventions offered since 2014. The work of Christopher Gabriel Brown, independently documented.
WFA-BLUEPRINT-PACK — Full Reference Design ($499,999)
The build-out tier. The complete WFA reference design — schematic, register-transfer-level (RTL) specification, design-verification (DV) vector library, integration guide, host-side reference driver source — engineered for the original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) whose hardware team will own the productization of a WiFi Accelerator-class product under their own brand and supply chain. WFA-BLUEPRINT-PACK ends the evaluation and dev-kit phases and begins the build phase. The buyer's hardware team can plan against shipping silicon: they design their host board around the WFA-Node pin contract, they specify their printed circuit board fabrication, they specify their final assembly, they write the production driver against the wire protocol, and they architect their cert program — all from a deliverable that gives them the engineering inputs to do every step.
Who this tier is for
The original-equipment manufacturer's hardware team that has committed to a WiFi-Accelerator-class product in the company's roadmap. The systems integrator engaged by a single end customer to deliver a vertically integrated cluster appliance built around WFA silicon. The defense or industrial-controls house that needs a deterministic-latency Wi-Fi data path for its rugged or hardened product line. The hyperscale-edge operator standing up its own custom point-of-presence hardware and needs the radio under its own control rather than a commodity vendor's. The original-design manufacturer (ODM) whose customers are those organizations.
Not for the buyer who is still evaluating (WFA-SPEC) or whose firmware team needs only to verify drivers against the protocol (WFA-DEV-KIT). Not for the buyer who intends to redistribute the WFA design to other organizations (redistribution is prohibited). Not for the buyer who lacks an in-house chip-program manager or RTL-experienced engineering team — the BLUEPRINT-PACK is a build-grade deliverable that assumes the buyer's organization can carry it to production.
What you get at this tier
- The complete WFA-Node reference-board KiCad design package. Schematic with manufacturer-specific footprints, layout-ready netlist, full bill of materials with second-source candidates per part. Layout discipline notes for the high-speed RF, QSPI, and host-SPI paths. Antenna design files for the integrated 6 GHz inverted-F PCB antenna.
- The synthesizable RTL specification for the WFA-Node digital blocks. Fabric framing engine (JSON-Lines + length-prefixed binary tunnel parser at line rate), crypto cluster (SHA-256, HMAC-SHA-256, AES-256-GCM, X25519, TRNG), NVRAM burst writer (QSPI master with fsync-on-write semantics), aggregated descriptor rings (high-priority and aggregated, per-direction), watchdog and power management. Block-level register maps, interface contracts, and timing budgets specified to the register-transfer level. The buyer's RTL team or contracted RTL house implements the HDL against this specification.
- The design-verification (DV) vector library. Two hundred fifty-plus golden vectors covering every wire-protocol boundary, every crypto operation, every descriptor-ring corner, every event-log write path. Compatible with cocotb, UVM, and VUnit testbench frameworks. Includes the same JSON-Lines and tunnel-frame corpora used by the inventor to verify the dev-kit emulation against the UniPhi DC software path, plus a hardware-side corpus covering the fabric-aware MAC scheduler's traffic-class policy decisions.
- The host-side reference driver source. A Linux kernel-bypass-style driver written in C, with NVMe-style queue and completion-ring semantics, against the WFA-Hub PCIe Gen3 ×1 host bus. A Windows analogue covering the SPI host bus path of WFA-Node. Both delivered with build scripts, test harness, and integration notes against the UniPhi DC software fabric as the canonical host application.
- The integration guide. A 100-plus-page document covering host-board layout in concrete detail (stackup, impedance control, RF reference design, antenna placement, regulatory keepout, decoupling specifications), production-test plan (per-board ICT vectors, JTAG boundary scan, RF return-loss measurement, host-bus loopback, end-to-end protocol verification), failure-analysis playbook, ESD and EMI mitigation, supply-chain considerations (foundry options outside AutoPhi if the buyer chooses to engage a different foundry — at the buyer's own cost and risk).
- The bring-up bench plan. The exact sequence the inventor recommends for first-silicon bring-up: power-rail confirmation, JTAG attachment, boundary scan, crystal verification, ROM debug print, QSPI verification, SHA-256 vector check, AES-GCM vector check, host SPI loopback, RF path measurement, 802.11ax association to a reference AP, end-to-end protocol verification against the dev-kit's golden vectors.
- The complete WFA-SPEC and WFA-DEV-KIT-equivalent documentation (every document from those tiers, current revision).
- One year of inventor email support from the date of delivery. The inventor answers wire-protocol questions, RTL specification clarifications, integration questions, layout reviews (up to four written reviews of the buyer's draft layout files), and bring-up support. The inventor reads, diagnoses, and writes back personally; the answers become a part of the buyer's engineering record.
- Two on-site-equivalent virtual reviews during the year — one at draft-layout-freeze, one at first-silicon-bring-up. Each is delivered as a written technical-review report of fifteen-plus pages from the inventor based on the buyer's submitted artifacts.
The design-target performance the BLUEPRINT-PACK is engineered to deliver
The same WFA-line design targets that drive the SPEC and the DEV-KIT, plus the silicon-side targets the BLUEPRINT-PACK is the contract for.
| Metric | Commodity baseline | WFA target |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy latency p99 | ~100 ms | <10 ms |
| mTLS handshake p99 | ~80 ms | <1 ms |
| Replication throughput (16 MB, N=3) | ~23 MB/s | >200 MB/s |
| Concurrent nodes per radio | ~8 practical | 64+ |
| Host CPU at saturation | ~70% | <10% |
| Typical power (Node SKU, 22 nm target) | ~600 mW (ESP32-S3 active) | ~150 mW typ. |
| Die area (Node SKU) | ~25 mm² typical for an ESP32-S3-class SoC | ~12 mm² at 22 nm |
Production path from BLUEPRINT-PACK to shipping product
The buyer's path from delivery to shipping product typically follows four phases. Phase one — host-board design (two to four months): the buyer's hardware team uses the schematic, the integration guide, and the inventor's draft-layout review to produce the buyer's host board built around the WFA-Node pin contract. Phase two — RTL implementation (three to six months): the buyer's RTL team or contracted RTL house implements the synthesizable HDL against the BLUEPRINT-PACK's RTL specification, verified against the DV vector library. Phase three — foundry engagement (varies): the buyer either engages AutoPhi at the FOUNDRY-PARTNER tier or engages a foundry of the buyer's choice at the buyer's own cost. Phase four — bring-up and cert (three to six months): the buyer brings up first silicon against the BLUEPRINT-PACK bring-up bench plan, conducts FCC Part 15 testing, conducts Wi-Fi Alliance cert (if the buyer wants the trademark), and enters production.
The total program from BLUEPRINT-PACK delivery to first shipping product is typically eighteen to thirty-six months, depending on the buyer's organization, the chosen foundry, and the cert program. The one-year inventor support window covers the design-and-implementation phases; renewal beyond the year is negotiated per buyer.
What is NOT included
- Redistribution rights. Reselling or redistributing the WFA reference design to third parties is prohibited. The buyer ships product under the buyer's own brand; the buyer does not become a WFA design-house reseller.
- The right to claim authorship. Marketing language such as "WFA Inside" or "WiFi Accelerator design" is allowed. "Designed by [buyer's name]" with respect to the underlying reference design is not.
- The channel to AutoPhi. AutoPhi engagement happens at the WFA-FOUNDRY-PARTNER tier.
- Wi-Fi Alliance trademark. The buyer's organization joins WFA membership and conducts per-product cert separately, at the buyer's cost.
- FCC Part 15 certification. The buyer's responsibility per shipped product.
- Real-time support. Email-only, including the year-long window and the two virtual reviews.
- International sale. USA-only. USD only. The buyer's eventual products may be sold internationally subject to the buyer's own cert and export-control compliance.
System requirements for the buyer's program
- An in-house chip-program manager or equivalent.
- An RTL engineering team or a contracted RTL house with experience implementing mixed-signal digital blocks against an external specification.
- A board-level hardware team with experience laying out RF / digital / power-mixed printed circuit boards at the QFN-56 form factor and the 6 GHz Wi-Fi band.
- A relationship with a foundry — either AutoPhi (via WFA-FOUNDRY-PARTNER) or the buyer's foundry of choice.
- A pathway to FCC Part 15 testing and Wi-Fi Alliance cert (in-house, contracted, or via a test-house partner).
- A working email account at which to receive the deliverables packet and conduct the year-long support thread.
How to order
Email christopher@cri-one.com with subject WFA — WFA-BLUEPRINT-PACK. Identify the buyer's organization, the program manager, the intended product, the expected production volume, and the buyer's preferred foundry path (AutoPhi via WFA-FOUNDRY-PARTNER, or another foundry at the buyer's own cost). The inventor responds with payment arrangements and a draft written agreement within one business day. Delivery is by email and secure file transfer once payment clears and the written agreement is signed.
Postal contact:
Christopher Gabriel Brown
1341 Wellington Cove
Lawrenceville, GA 30043-5255
United States
Patent-pending. USA-only sales. United States Dollars only. Email-only contact.
