Can Intel E810-CAM2 support two PTP Hardware clocks?

[IvanChang]

Dear Staffs,

I have installed my E810 Cam2 on my NUC9i7 platform, and installed the latest v1.8.8 ice driver on my ubuntu personal OS. 

However, I found that these two 100Gbe QSFP devices/ports (eth0 & enp1s0f1) always use the same PTP HW clock number which is /dev/ptp2 for example.

I need two PTP HW clocks (one for master clock, the other for slave clock) to finish my ptp4l project. Using the same ptp instance will cause the phc2sys command not functioning when I try to combine these two ethernet device names with the same PTP instance.

However, the original NUC's 1GbE NIC has two seperate PTP HW clocks (ex: dev/ptp0 for eno1 and dev/ptp1 for enp111s0 ) and works perfectly for ptp4l project.  

Is it a driver issue or hardware issue?

Please advice.

Thanks.

Ivan Chang

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Thank you for posting on Intel Ethernet Communities. 

We would just like to clarify if you are using a discreet network adapter or are you using an embedded ethernet controller or what we call LOM (Lan On Motherboard) on your set up? 

If you are using a discreet network adapter, please provide us a picture of the markings both front and back so we can validate if you are using a retail card or a 3rd party OEM kit. 

Or if you are using the LOM on your NUC9i7 please advised us as well.  

If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further

Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[IvanChang]

Hi Zigfreid,

Thanks for your response. 

There are two NICs on my NUC9i7 now as picture below. You can see the NUC S/N number.

One is 1GbE NIC on the left which I believe is the LOM you mentioned. And this LOM Intel NIC has two PTP HW clocks mentioned above. 

The other NIC is 100GbE E810-Cam2 (discreet network adapter) on the righ hand side middle slot. 

This expensive guy is purchased thru FS.com and you can see. 

Please let me know if E810-Cam2 can support two PTP HW clocks. 

100GbE NIC:

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Thank you very much for providing us the information that we asked. As per checking your discreet NIC is the one that is using the Ethernet Controller E810-CAM2. 

We do apologize however as much as we want to further assist you, since this NIC is from FS the drivers and firmware that this NIC is using is different from ours so it would be best if you can contact the OEM manufacturer instead and ask if it can support the PTP HW clocks.

As per checking, you can contact FS support on the link below. 

https://www.fs.com/sg/solution_support.html

https://www.fs.com/sg/products/141788.html

If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further. If none, please advise us if we can close the thread.

Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[IvanChang]

Hi Zigfreid,

Thanks for your response. 

Please let me change my question.

Do you know whether this E810-CAM2 eth controller supports two PTP HW clocks for your retail version NIC with the official driver and FW? 

This could help me better clarify to FS support team for its OEM card.

Thanks.

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Thank you for responding, we will have this check for you if our E810-CAM2 retail adapters can support 2 PTP HW clocks. Please provide us some to check, would it be okay if we can provide an update within 2-3 business days? If you have a preferred date please advise us. Thank you and have a nice day!

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[IvanChang]

Hi Zigfreid,

 No problem. 2-3 business days is okay for me.

Thanks.

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

We do apologize for the delay since we will not be able to provide you an update today, as the case is still being further investigated. Rest assure that we are closely monitoring this case and once an update is available we will notify you immediately. 

We would like to ask for more time for this, is it okay if we can ask for another 2-3 business days to provide you an update? We thank you for your patience and understanding and we hope you have a nice day!

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Firstly we do apologize for the delay since needed to have this further check to provide you an accurate information. As per checking, according to the datasheet of E810 controller there are separate timers for each PHY but they are synced with 2 primary timers. This allows flexibility to support two separate 1588 time domains. 

We will be sharing you the E810 datasheet document and please check out section 9.7.1 on Page 1494.

However, please be advised since you are using a 3rd party Ethernet Adapter it would be best to check with the manufacturer as well as they are still best source of support.

If you have questions or other clarifications please let us know so we can help you further. 

Awaiting to hear from you soon, should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days. Thank you and have a nice day!

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[IvanChang · Accepted solution]

Hi Zigfreid,

Thanks very much for your reply in details. 

I will confirm with the distributor for its HW capability. 

Thanks.

Ivan

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Thank you very much for responding back and we are glad that we were able to provide some assistance with your concern. We'd also like to know if you have any other questions or clarifications? Please let us know so we would know if we can close the thread.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Should there be no response from you, I’ll make sure to reach out after 3 business days

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.

We'd like to know if you have any other questions or clarifications please let us know so we would know if we can close the thread.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

We will wait for your reply within 3 business days in case we don't hear from you, we will proceed closing this request.

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.

Please be informed that we will now close this request since we haven't received any response from our previous follow ups. Just feel free to post a new question if you have any other inquiry in the future as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support

[IvanChang]

Hi all,

Yes, please close this ticket.

[Zigfreid_Intel]

Hello IvanChang,

Thank you very much for responding and advising us, we will now close the case. Have a great day! 

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support