Put An Atomic Clock in Your PC - Open Source Time Card

The Time Card is an open source PCI Express card that brings atomic clock level accuracy to your PC. Using a Rubidium miniature atomic clock, the Time Card turns your PC into a Stratum 0 primary time server.
Time Card is the heart of the Open Time Server Project www.opentimeserver.com/
This spec can be accessed at www.timingcard.com
Introduction to Android app development: www.dgitacademy.com
Let Me Explain T-shirt: teespring.com/gary-explains-l...
Twitter: / garyexplains
Instagram: / garyexplains
#garyexplains

[@tom95521]

In the mid 70s before GPS was active. I was in the US Coast Guard on an Oceanography ship. We had an old rack mounted Honeywell DDP-516 with ferrite bead memory and paper tape reader and teletype output. It was used for precise navigation with Loran C and doppler satellites. We had a HP Cesium Beam time standard next to the DDP-516. It could replace a Loran station for location triangulation. Not sure exactly how it worked but we were able to return to a position 12 months later in the ocean and trigger a titanium sphere to pop up from the ocean bottom using an ultrasonic signal.

[@Cyromantik]

That sounds like hella fascinating work.

[@PaddyMcMe]

+Tom Mendenhall Ha, yeah, so true, so true. I was reading something similar the other day. In the uh. Newspaper. Yeah.

[@evanbarnes9984]

That sounds like a small piece from something like an Isaac Asimov story! So cool

[@justinchampion5468]

Used Rubidium time standards are available on eBay from ~$150 up. They are often 'service pulls' from older Cellphone network systems but can work fine for precision time-keeping. I love the idea of an all-in-one 'drop-in' card for a PC but for ham radio and tinkering those used rack-mount jobs are a steal!

[@marc-andreservant201]

If your budget is $150, then you can also use the PPS output from a GPS receiver IC from an e-waste smartphone. It might even be free. Of course, your application might not allow for a clear view of the sky, and what good is a ham radio transmitter that requires a licensed radio signal to work?

[@TheSulross]

the real limitation of time granularity is not so much the time keeping devices like this one - its the synchronization of multiple location-spanning devices due to attempting to cope with communication latencies. "not a consumer item" - well, I've got a desktop PC with some available PCI slots and have been hoping something would come along that would be interesting to put in them; this definitely qualifies, and if could get this for $250 or under would just jump on it. But until reaches that price point will still just keep acquiring FPGA goodies

[@autohmae]

How about: PIKVM inside some 3d printed PCI-holder ?

[@aloysiushettiarachchi4523]

Very informative Gary!. Love to watch your videos from Sri Lanka.

[@ogbenchmarks7127]

consequences of bad time managements = Blues Brothers car crashes

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

Lol... LLAP

[@Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

Ok cool but what if we wanna put a PC in our atomic clock

[@Phoenix56801]

Big brain time

[@fredneedle123]

Wow Gary. This is interesting stuff, yet again.

[@doctorrusty6494]

This is indeed cool! And interesting! Thanks Gary!!!

[@natjes6017]

Gary just does the coolest tech videos, second to none 👍🏻

[@GaryExplains]

😃

[@DukeofEarl1961]

Second to Jeff Geerling in this case...

[@GaryExplains]

@@DukeofEarl1961 And Linus Tech Tips did one before Jeff.

[@natjes6017]

@@DukeofEarl1961 Gary Explains channel is enuff for me 👌

[@JeffGeerling]

@@GaryExplains But we all have our unique perspectives ;)

[@Ultrajamz]

Could be used to make reliable end to end encryption apps

[@MorsMeld]

Excuses Gary now has for being late: 0.000000001

[@JishnuM]

Gary please make a video on Xilinx. I heard they are being acquired by AMD.

[@matteoricci9129]

A ptp implementation would be a great topic for another video

[@bernardoherrera5217]

hey thanks for the Video! Whatching from Colombia in South America! Could you explain maybe in a future video about leap seconds? And How UTC works ?

[@alliejr]

It seems Gary and Jeff Geerling are in sync 🤣

[@GaryExplains]

At a nano second level!

[@JeffGeerling]

@@GaryExplains maybe someday in Picoseconds 🤪

[@john-r-edge]

Gary. Is there a playlist for the Time videos? Sometimes hard to find the right ones, given how prolific you are!

[@RPG_ash]

LOL @ 11:07 that little chuckle

[@krish2nasa]

Gravity does affect the clock's tick rate.

[@malarkey102]

The Dr Who movie in 1996 Paul McGann he needed an Atomic Clock to stop the Master 😃

[@dread69420]

Would be cool to have a time card locally.

[@neihsangapautu9096]

Did you know anything about the UNISOC processor?? Can you talk about it??

[@Techno-Universal]

Pretty much an essential component for a system operating in a radio silent zone which cannot be safely connected to the internet! :)

[@elmirelmir842]

Did you lift it up and then put it down during the installation?

[@JCO2002]

Lol. Very clever.

[@PlanetCypher_]

I'm using Arch

[@MvanderWel]

How long before we have one on our wrists?

[@ayazgv]

where to get atomic clock like this? I didn't found it on ebay

[@GaryExplains]

Link to the project is in the description.

[@raymondzhao9557]

cooooooooool

[@fotomeinema-annemeinema3974]

Where did you find the time to explain ? :-)

[@Pifagorass]

Maybe @CocorochDB will revisit essential design decisions based on assumption - 'regular enterprise can't afford atomic clock' ;)

[@nickwild1457]

Awesome 👍

[@petermainwaringsx]

Could this be the basis of a distributed LORAN clone, where a local alternative to GPS could be provided by enthusiastic techies/radio hams? The $1500 would probably be too high a hurdle to get over, for anything more than a flight of fancy. 🤔

[@ZachariasEnislidis]

where do we buy this card?

[@UjjwalPatil20]

Is this the reason why the minimum ping in PUBGM is 20ms??

[@JenSavage]

Nevermind should: it's not a consumer thing that you *can* get.

[@vladislavkaras491]

So, in this case, could we call the PCIe time card for Stratum 0 device, meanwhile the PC that has the device is located in Stratum 1 and further servers that wants to get their NTP synced from this device are in Stratum 2? Thank you!

[@fjdkfdfjdf33]

Will this help my ping time in CS:GO?

[@helge000]

Actually it would help very much (caveat: All the player's need one, or be synced via PTP)

[@fjdkfdfjdf33]

@@helge000 Good point. It wasn't a serious question though.

[@iamstartower]

Guess its impossible to OC by changing the clock cicles with this device

[@erkinalp]

Just change your clock divider :)

[@tiejeevan]

What about day light saving... ?

[@GaryExplains]

All times are in UTC. Time zones and daylight savings come after that and are based on the UTC time.

[@Slada1]

Wow, atomic clock is that small?

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

These geek collectives are making Star Trek ever so closer more then the rich fellas

[@hiru92]

when ever I boot to windows after Linux , why time change everytime 🤔

[@Metal1996]

Linux uses UTC time in the BIOS level where Windows uses local time in the BIOS You can set Windows to use UTC BIOS time in the registry

[@1MarkKeller]

*TIME LORD CONFIRMED!*

[@1MarkKeller]

*GARY!!!* Good morning Professor! Good morning fellow classmates! Stay safe out there everyone!

[@GaryExplains]

MARK!!!

[@GaryExplains]

🤣

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

Well all right then! 1,5000 bucks! Sure thing... That is so geeky I need one... :-P NOT... Thanks for the Ultimate Geek Clock video! LLAP

[@fuseteam]

1500 not 15000 :p

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

@@fuseteam I know. the key echoed and after hitting comment I seen ti and said that works... :-P Might as well be that... Lol LLAP

[@robertdowner2328]

Why? Computer time if hooked to the net is no different

[@GaryExplains]

The I guess you didn't watch my other video, because it isn't.

[@clickbaitpro]

It provides much much more accurate time which speeds up the many processes significantly

[@alexlandherr]

If it was under 100 USD or 1000 SEK I’d buy and put it in my desktop. UPDATE 2022-07-26: I’ve checked one seller and it’s about 30000 SEK.

[@Sooyush]

I commented without using Mouse

[@robertbruce7686]

True but want ccp accurate time...

[@PWingert1966]

Sure that was an accident by the US navy. That was the exact tie I was landing my personal space yacht in San Fransisco to meet with the president #KlattuVeradaNicto

[@kevinhatchett2021]

what he said...

[@lucasrem1870]

Cesium clock? this small? Rubidium, Laser, lol!

[@GaryExplains]

I don't understand your comment.

[@lucasrem1870]

@@GaryExplains What part you don't understand? Cesium u understand, rubidium does the same, less exact, but good enough! Try to understand the HP Cesium machine first, then u understand what these PC slot cards do to! Good luck!

[@GaryExplains]

Of course I understand the individual words like "cesium" or "clock". But you didn't create any sentences, you just put two words together and then a question mark. I understand how the rubidium module works, I describe it in the video. I still don't understand what point you are trying to make. Did you even watch the video?

[@lucasrem1870]

@@GaryExplains sorry, we just call them cesium clocks. Rubidium gas does the same, microwave, laser this small? Is that all in that small metal box on the card, wow! great video!

[@DouglasWilliamsPDX]

keep it away from helium

[@KentReynolds]

hope not radioactive lol

[@marioenc04]

Yeah.. totally predictable (no pun indeed) First on Linus, now here. Come on, we dont need PTP. How about disclosure the real reasons..

[@GaryExplains]

And what are the real reasons?

[@marioenc04]

@@GaryExplainsyou tell us, what a coincidence, two different tech channels, that are kinda far away from big server/data center world, now talking about nano second node synchronization. on transparent switching networks ... yeah right

[@GaryExplains]

@Mario Jr Eh? Not just two, at least three that I know of, Jeff Geerling also has one. As with many devices I review, and I guess it is the same for the others guys, I was offered a review unit to test and I accepted as I thought the idea of an atomic clock in a PC is cool. Unfortunately for me (and my bank account) it was not sponsored in any way. I don't see the problem you have.

[@clickbaitpro]

It's a cool tech, why not?

[@Waitwhat469]

Well facebook is pushing for it, but why it caught on vs all of the other opencompute stuff? It's really cool and usable in a lot of places and not just in hyperscaling Also I am at like 5 videos a couple even have interviews with the engineer, so I am guessing they are activally trying to drum up interest to help turn this from POC to actually useful for people