What is the difference between hardware and software timestamping?
The main difference is in the synchronization accuracy that is achievable. With software timestamping as typically implemented (software-only approach), you can see slave synchronization accuracies between 10 and 100 microseconds. With software timestamping as implemented on an EndRun product (software-hardware hybrid) you can see slave synchronization accuracies of less than 10 microseconds. You can achieve this level of accuracy with commonly used network hardware such as standard switches, and computers with software PTP slaves. With hardware timestamping it is possible to achieve time synchronization accuracies below 1 microsecond. However, in order to get this level of accuracy, both the Grandmaster and the Slave must be capable of hardware timestamping. This means you will need to purchase specialized hardware to install in each Slave. In addition, special PTP-enabled network switches must be used. For more information on the software, hardware and hybrid implementations of PTP r
