PTP Hardware Clock on Jetson Orin Nano

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Orin Nano
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I have seen a number of posts on here “confirming” that the Jetson Orin Nano does NOT support PTP hardward timestamping. The results of the ethtool output on our Jetson Orin Nano would seem to confirm that as well.

$ ethtool -T eth0
Time stamping parameters for eth0:
Capabilities:
	software-transmit     (SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE)
	software-receive      (SOF_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE)
	software-system-clock (SOF_TIMESTAMPING_SOFTWARE)
PTP Hardware Clock: none
Hardware Transmit Timestamp Modes: none
Hardware Receive Filter Modes: none

My question is:
If we want to develop on the Jetson Orin Nano AND we require PTP hardware time stamping for time sync between a connected LiDAR, for example, and the Orin Nano, what are the options for providing PTP in this case?

We cannot have a network switch or other PTP hardware device in the environment due to weight limitations of the whole package.

Is there an alternate carrier board that includes and Ethernet capable of providing PTP hardware timestamping?

Thanks,
Peter

4

Sorry for the late response.
Ｗe’re checking with internal team to get the update with you, please stay tuned.

Thanks

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Hi, I also would like to know if this is possible. We are locked into using a Orin Nano (or similar formfactor/weight) but would like to be able to do PTP hardware timestamping.
Any updates?

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Following up on this issue here, I presume we are correct to say that the nVidia Devkit version of Jetson Orin Nano does not support PTP. However we see the news today that there is the new devkit version of the Jetson Orin Nano SUPER. Does the gigabit ethernet port on the carrier board support PTP and hardware timestamping?

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The Jetson Orin Nano Super is the same hardware. There is only one Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit. Because of the power boost through SW upgrade, we are rebranding Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit with Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit.

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Does the orin nano / super support hardware PTP. We need that too… So, am I correct to assume that neither one supports PTP?

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The processor module contains the phy - according to NVidia an RTL 8111HNI. As this chip seems to not support PTP no carrier board using this port ever will be able to.

The only way out would be using an Intel i210/I225 M.2 board. The Intel nics contain MAC and PHY and seem to support PTP. However, the Intel chips might require extra connections for the PTP to work. You may need to design your own boards.

And you may want to ask other carrier manufacturers like ConnectTech or Forecr. They often use Intel NICs in order to provide a second port.

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That is what are thoughts are too, not sure why PTP is omitted. Its needed for automation and robotics. We are not going to design our own boards, that is just crazy unless the product is high volume. Our stuff is low volume and custom built, not really practical. These boards also need dual PHY, at least one at 1Gbs the other can be slower.

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Look here:

The second port is an i210, which does support PTP. The manual doesn’t say anything about PTP. You need to ask ConnectTech if they have wired the i210 for PTP.

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It looks like it has about everything we need!! Thank you very much for sharing that.

We are not yet committed on the nvidia stuff, it was doing fine until we needed to configure the device tree. This is turning into a nightmare project, so much is missing details, files are missing, spending hours looking for more bread crumbs to do something that is fairly straight forward. I will call them up an see what is going on with the board and PTP, again thank you.

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Just be aware: You need special BSPs for non-NVidia carriers. SDKManager does not work for flashing. Just follow the instructions for the ConnectTech BSP. You need to email the support for the BSP source files in order to insert your customisations.

And yes - I have been working with Jetson stuff for 7 years, and I share your frustration. Just the effort to make CSI2 devices working on Orin NX that are basically plug-and-play on a Pi5 is amazing.

Designing carrier boards was the fun part of the whole project.

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