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Experience

Last edited by Erik van der Bij Feb 09, 2022
Page history

Real examples that show that being Open improves quality, generates new developments and new collaborations

Real examples that show that being Open helps to improve quality

As all design files are available for Open Designs, it easy for users, producers and other interested people to study the designs and find and signal problems.
The following table shows that this in practice also happens.

Project Date Bug signaled by Bug type Bug description
SPEC Early User 3 Mechanical problem SFP
SPEC Producer 1 Design problem: supply voltage too low
SPEC 04-2015 User 2 Too strong pull-down on reset line. Issue 1067
SVEC 01-2014 Producer 1 Documentation of VHDL code wrong
FmcAdc100M14b4cha 09-2013 Producer 1 Production Test program, non-functional bug
White Rabbit Switch 2012 Early User 2, 3 Many different bugs
White Rabbit Switch 09-2013 Early User 2 Setting of nsec part of TAI time
White Rabbit Switch 08-2013 User 2 WR time from SPEC to NTP daemon. User wrote tool
White Rabbit Switch 08-2013 User 3 Display of delay times failed for links over 100km
White Rabbit Switch 09-2014 Producer 1 Second producer improved quality of production documentation
White Rabbit core 09-2013 User 3 Jumps in WR time when used over an out-of-spec length link
White Rabbit core 11-2013 User 2 Jumps in WR time on 1000 km link. Bug in core. Seen by user; another user corrected partially bug;
CERN made final corrections and simulations.
White Rabbit NIC 04-2015 User 2 Error with high traffic load (Follow up message is not from current parent)

It seems that there are different types of bug reports

  1. errors that could only be found by studying the designs (so OH made this happen).
  2. errors that could be found by any user, the user could find a solution because all design information is available.
  3. errors that could be found by any user, and were just reported to the developers (because the design was Open, there were more users that could make this happen).

Real examples that show that being Open generates new developments

As all design files are available for Open Designs, it easy for users, producers and other interested people to use the open designs to create new designs.*
The following table shows that this in practice also happens.

Project Date Based on Institute Description
WorldFIP 09-2012 nanoFIP Netherlands nanoFIP design used as basis for renovating train control system
Cute WR 03-2012 SPEC China Minimised version for use as White Rabbit node only
SPEXI 09-2013 SPEC INCAA PXIe bus instead of PCIe bus
SPEC100 01-2014 SPEC Seven Solutions SPEC with larger FPGA (XC6SLX100T instead of XC6SLX45T)
spec-box-1n/3n 10-2013 SPEC Seven Solutions Boxes to make SPEC boards usable in stand-alone mode
Cute WR DP 04-2014 SPEC, Cute WR China Dual port White Rabbit node
CRIO-WR 07-2014 SPEC, Cute WR Universitaet Zuerich Compact RIO White Rabbit node. Now sold by industry.
PXIe-700 11-2015 SPEC, SPEXI Sundance DSP PXIe FMC Carrier with Kintex-7 FPGA Card with HPC FMC. Inspired by SPEXI, but completely new design.
mini-WR 10-2018 SPEC Tsinghua University mini version of SPEC
TiCkS 11-2020 SPEC France Time stamping for CTA camera triggers in small form factor
SVEC pulse generator 01-2014 SVEC JanzTec Firmware development of pulse generator for a client. Client made Rear transition module with buffers.
SVEC 3.3 Volt adapter 05-2014 SVEC Creotech Design and production of adapter to make SVEC work in classic VME crate.
SVEC industrial 12-2017 SVEC JanzTec Request for special production with extended temperature range.
WRPC on new FPGA 08-2013 WRPC NIKHEF New FPGA Xilinx Kintex-7 platform for White Rabbit main core
WRPC on new FPGA 08-2013 WRPC GSI New FPGA Altera platform for White Rabbit main core
uTCA MCH WR card 01-2014 WRPC ELMA uTCA.4 MCH card that is White Rabbit enabled
ENTERVISION (a CERN medical imaging project) 01-2014 WRPC CPPM (Marseille) Synchronisation scheme inspired by the DDMTD used in WR project
WRP Nanosecond Switch 07-2015 White Rabbit Switch EPFL Project to make White Rabbit go wireless. Develop new backplane for use in WR switch
WRS-FL 03-2018 White Rabbit Switch Tsinghua University WR switch fan-less design. Redesign of all boards and dust-proof housing.
Chromium Backplane 03-2018 White Rabbit Switch NIKHEF Compact WR switch design.
Integration with FMC carrier 02-2022 FmcAdc100M14b4cha Synchrotron SOLEIL Re-use of ADC on an existing carrier from SOLEIL.

Real examples that show that being Open generates new collaborations

Project Date Partners Description
FMC FD 10-2013 INCAA, Seven Solutions One production company tests cards produced by another one.
SPEC 01-2014 INCAA, Seven Solutions Two production companies collaborate to improve the production test programs
OH general 03-2014 Ultrasync (China), other An OH customer requested a new Chinese company that they should build a tight and friendly partnership with other OHR companies by exchange custorm information and project requirement and resell the existing OHR products.
This Chinese client wishes the company to act as a bridge to connect the exist OHR commercial community with wide China market.
SPEC 09-2014 NA62, BE-RF CERN physics experiment receives gateware and software from the accelerator sector.
Application of receiving data over fibre and transferring into PC memory very similar.
WR 08-2015 CMS CMS re-uses code of White Rabbit for phase comparison of two signals. J.Troska.
WR Switch V4 11-2021 CERN Embedded Monitoring Processor (EMP) for detector control system High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC) can re-use mechanical design and power supply.

Real examples that show that being Open helps in education

The more I read about white-rabbit, the more impressed I am!
You and your colleagues should rightly be very proud of your achievements and I appreciate that the algorithm and hardware has been made available as open-source materials.
I have learnt much from studying the high quality documentation in the OHWR repositories.
(S, United Kingdom, 5-05-2017)

I am using the OHWR site to give to our students the possibility to have libraries (schematic, VHDL, Linux Driver) at the beginning of their professional lives. Professor D.O., Haute école d’ingénierie et d’architecture Fribourg, 5-10-2016


Erik van der Bij - 9 February 2022

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  • Documents
  • Documents
    • "open hardware for cern’s accelerator control systems", 2011
    • "open hardware for technology transfer", 3 june 2013
    • "open source hw and sw in a scientific context", 2016
    • "open hardware and big science", november 2017
    • Cern open hardware brochure
    • Oh presentation at cern, 22 june 2010
    • Ohr logos
    • Pr: "how to create successful oh projects", 25 sept 2013
    • Pr: oh opportunities and innovative electronics 2014
    • Presentation "oh for cern’s accelerators", 11 october 2011
    • Presentation "open hardware development" february 2013
    • Presentation "open hardware repository" fscons 2010
    • Presentation "open hardware at cern" okcon 2013
  • Documents/GPL
    • Lgpl for hdl: open questions
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