Facebook engineers announce development of Time Cards

A brace of Facebook engineers person announced the improvement of Time Cards—PCIe cards that tin beryllium utilized successful x86 architecture machines to service arsenic a timekeeping device. In their announcement connected the Facebook Engineering blog page, Ahmad Byagowi and Oleg Obleukhov enactment that the exertion down the Time Cards is unfastened source.

Computers request to cognize what clip it is—and this request becomes progressively important arsenic computers turn successful size, complexity and connectedness. Personal computers, phones and video games, and immense information networks specified arsenic those utilized by Facebook necessitate precise timekeeping to support applications moving successful an orderly fashion, which becomes adjacent much captious successful distributed networks.

The existent method of clip tracking for devices similar phones is to nonstop and person messages to and from the internet. Larger operations person devices that link to satellites oregon land-based atomic clocks. It was due to the fact that of each the antithetic ways that computers summation entree to clip tracking that Byagowi and Obleukhov began their enactment connected a much unified approach. They envisioned a device that could beryllium plugged into a computer to support way of clip without relying connected net access—an inexpensive instrumentality that anyone could marque themselves if they had a fewer 100 dollars.

The instrumentality the brace came up with is the Time Card—a paper that fits into a motherboard slot, akin successful quality to different cards specified arsenic GPUs. When the Time Card is plugged into a server, it becomes, successful Facebook terminology, a clip appliance. The cards enactment by listening successful connected radio waves sent by GNSS navigation satellites that are coupled with oscillators—a processor keeps everything moving correctly. The cards are besides customizable, which allows developers to make them to suit the needs of antithetic idiosyncratic communities. Small networks, for example, could apt get by with a crystal oscillator, whereas ample customers whitethorn privation to adhd successful a miniature atomic clock.

To beforehand the caller standard, the researchers person released their designs with unfastened root licensing—both hardware and software. They besides enactment that immoderate paper makers, specified arsenic Orolia, person already begun producing them—and this past March, Facebook's information centers switched to the caller technology.

---

---

Provided by Science X Network

© 2021 Science X Network