White-Rabbit -> Status
Status
The White Rabbit project was started in 2008 by Javier Serrano and his colleagues. From the start it has been a collaborative effort where everyone works together to make a working solution.
By summer 2012 we have built 18-port switches and use the SPEC hardware as end nodes and have made a demonstration program where one can see that the WR protocol lives up to its promises. For small systems where a single end node is sufficient, software has been written to run the White Rabbit protocol between two SPEC boards and associated digital I/O FMC mezzanines.
Many institutes (notably GSI) have also built WR end nodes, while the company National Instruments is designing a WR receiver for their PXI measurement systems.
Many users are building small test systems to evaluate the performance for use in their upcoming applications.
The switches are available from industry with a delivery time of three to six months, while the SPEC end node boards are usually available from stock.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but globally the main work is in the following projects:
- finalise the firmware of the switch
- work on standardisation of the protocol (WR Standardization project)
- WR enable different mezzanine cards (TDC, ADC, Fine Delay)
- document and support users of White Rabbit
- the 6th WR workshop created a rather complete To-do list
Major events
Date | Event |
15-02-2008 | White Rabbit workshop 1. Project start. |
27-10-2008 | White Rabbit workshop 2. |
31-03-2009 | Review of Switch MCH card v1. |
20-07-2009 | White Rabbit workshop 3. Demonstration of a stabilized link. |
01-04-2010 | Switch MCH card v2 PCB ready. |
28-06-2010 | Report on measuring propagation delay in FPGAs builds groundwork. |
08-10-2010 | WR switch PTP compliance tested in ISPCS 2010 plugfest. |
10-12-2010 | First developer meeting. Basic Ethernet switching demonstrated. |
14-04-2011 | 4th WR Workshop. PTP working on a WR node. |
02-09-2011 | WR Demonstration package documented (SPEC-Switch-SPEC). |
19-09-2011 | 5th WR Workshop. |
05-03-2012 | CERN received 4 WR V3 switches. |
22-03-2012 | 6th WR Workshop. |
23-05-2012 | White Rabbit presented at IEEE 802.1 (AVB Gen 2) meeting in view of standardization. |
08-06-2012 | Mini WhiteRabbit network with two SPEC cards documented (SPEC-SPEC). |
28-09-2012 | White Rabbit PTP extension proposed to be included in revision of IEEE PTP standard at ISPCS (document, presentation). |
27-10-2012 | 7th WR Workshop. Showing the final production version of the switch. |
17-01-2013 | White Rabbit Starting Kit available. |
24-01-2013 | White Rabbit switch V3.3 passes all CE marking tests (power, electrical safety, labels, EMI). |
21-02-2013 | GSI, Germany received the first production batch of V3.3 switches. |
25-04-2013 | CERN, Switzerland received soon 10 V3.3 switches. |
6 May 2013