White Rabbit Switch by Creotech

The White Rabbit Switch by Creotech provides sub-nanosecond accuracy and picoseconds precision of synchronization for large distributed systems.

White Rabbit Switch allows for deterministic and reliable data delivery. WRS allows you to precisely time-tag measured data and lets you trigger data taking in large installations while at the same time using the same network to transmit data. White Rabbit Switch works on a distance range over 10km using optic fiber and allows to connect thousands of nodes in the network.

Front Panel

• 5 SMC connectors (1-PPS input and output, 62.5 MHz output, 10 MHz input)
• 18 cages for Gigabit SFP transceivers (connected to Xilinx GTXs)
• 10/100 Ethernet management port (connected to ARM CPU)
• Mini-USB UART management port (connected to ARM CPU)
• Power and Status LEDs
• Link and Act LEDs for each SFP cage

Back Panel

• 2x Mini-USB UART debugging port (connected to ARM CPU and FPGA I/O pins)
• 2x cooling fan
• 2x microswitch, power button
• 1x grounding connector

Programmable resources

• Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA (LX240T FFG1156)
• ARM Atmel AT91 SAM9G45 CPU – 400MHz

Clocking resources

• 1x Low-Jitter Clock Generator (Synthesizer 28-683MHz TI CDCM61002, used as DMTD offset clock in WR Switch HDL)
• 1x 25MHz VCXO, FRETHE025 controlled by DAC with SPI interface (AD5662 16bit 2.7-5.54V, used to drive CDCM61002 generator)
• 1x 25MHz VCO controlled by DAC with SPI interface (AD5662 16bit 2.7-5.54V, used to drive AD9516 generator)
• 1x 25MHz XO oscillator FNETHE025 (main FPGA clock)
• PLL – 14 Output Clock Generator with Integrated 1.6 GHz VCO (AD9516, clock signals for Xilinx GTXs, µTCA connectors)
• 1x Internal Oscillator (VM53S3-25.000, tuned to follow WR master clock or followed in Free Running mode)

Memory

• 64MB DDR2
• 256MB NAND
• 8MB boot flash

Software

• Linux – kernel v3.16.38
• Timing – WRP daemon (node discovery, etc.) PTPv2 daemon

Switching

• 1x protocols (multicasting, spanning tree, GMRP/-GARP)
• VLAN Tagging
• SNMP switch management

Other

• Protocols: TCP/IP, SSH, SNMP, TFTP, DHCP, ARP, DNS
• 1x FPGA JTAG connector
• 1x ARM JTAG connector
• 2x I2C multiplexer (PCA9548A)
• 1x I2C GPIO driver (PCA9554PW, driving Power and Status LEDs on the front panel)
• 9x I2C GPIO driver (PCA9554PW, driving LEDs for each SFP cage)
• Power supply 100-240VAC, 2.0A, 50-60Hz input, 12VDC, 6.66A, 80W output

The White Rabbit Switch is a central element of a White Rabbit network for ultra-precise time and event distribution and was designed as a part of the White Rabbit project at CERN. It can be used for sub-nanosecond time synchronization of control and measurement systems distributed over large (multi-km) distances.

More technical information: https://www.ohwr.org/projects/wr-switch-hw/wiki

We offer electronics engineering consultancy services, including: custom modifications of hardware, custom firmware and gateware modifications, system design, integration and testing.