White Rabbit (CERN)

White Rabbit is a fully deterministic Ethernet-based network for general purpose data transfer and synchronization. The aim is to be able to synchronize ~1000 nodes with sub-ns accuracy over fiber and copper lengths of up to 10 km. The key technologies used are physical layer syntonization (clock recovery) and PTP (IEEE 1588).

The project, driven by the CERN and following an “Open Hardware” strategy, consists in designing and manufacturing PCB boards in order to implement GigE switch using the White Rabbit Protocol defined by the CERN

For more information about White Rabbit Project you can take a look at our specific webpage:

White Rabbit Solution: http://www.sevensols.com/whiterabbitsolution/

Activities carried out by Seven Solutions

Research and definition of functional requirements for the White Rabbit switch.
Study of possible hardware architectures and definition of technical requirements:
- FPGA Virtex-6 (Xilinx)
- ARM9 (Atmel)
- Memories (2MB QDRII SRAM, 64 MB DDR2, Flash)
- Clocking (high performance PLLs)
- Ports: 20 GTXs & 88 GPIOs
Schematic design of the main board: the SCB (Switching Core Board).
PCB rooting:
- Layout stack-up: 12 layers.
- Defining the parameters to control and fit the impedance.
Test & debugging of the first manufactured prototype.
Development of specific VHDL cores for the peripherals and components included in the SCB.