TimeTools T1000 syncs your PC's clock with GPS

Here's a likely candidate for most unnecessary, albeit entirely geeky device of the day. TimeTools' T1000 Precision Time Server links up to your Windows, Linux, or Unix workstation in order to obtain "highly accurate time" from GPS satellites. Interfacing via a RS-232 serial port or USB (depending on model), the T1000 connects with GPS systems via the included patch antenna to retrieve the current time within 100 nanoseconds. Furthermore, the 30-gram box is said to be fully weatherproof for survival out in the wild, and while we're not quite sure what the price on this oh-so-precise piece of equipment will be, it's probably only worth it for the bragging rights.

[Via NaviGadget]

[scott @ Jun 14th 2007 2:30AM]

I get this, I brag to my friends about having my wristwatch exactly set to the atomic clock in Colorado.

Then again, I'm an engineer, and therefore a complete dork...

[Vinay @ Jun 14th 2007 2:35AM]

A damn cesium clock would run cheaper, I'd guess.

[dustin3000 @ Jun 14th 2007 3:18AM]

Somebody please tell me why this is at all necessary when there's already NTP available?

[Ebbe @ Jun 14th 2007 3:32AM]

A GPS signal is free whereas a network connection may be very expensive for instance on a ship in the middle of the Pacific.

[Jake @ Jun 14th 2007 3:55AM]

:-/

This is not a consumer product. (Why it's on Engadget is beyond me. It must be slow day...) If it was a consumer product, it would have used USB, not RS232. But it is a "gadget" so maybe it does belong here.

There is use for this in the professional field, surveyors come to mind. It's definitely good for more than "bragging rights". NTP is good, but it's not accurate to 100ns, and it isn't accessible across the entire planet.

[drtekger @ Jun 14th 2007 4:31AM]

Read the article buddy, it comes in two versions. So it actually IS a gadget =)

[rco @ Jun 14th 2007 4:45AM]

While this is definitely not useful for the consumer, ensuring this fine synchronization of clocks over the Internet at a reasonable price is crucial to enable the implementation of several fundamental, basic services upon which you can then have nice dependable applications. Things like having a set of sites agreeing on something, delivering messages by the same order are extremely difficult to achieve in a wide area setting and can be made easier resorting to devices like this one.

This is not that useful for the average geek though...

[David @ Jun 14th 2007 5:41AM]

I'd just like to point out that there are SOFTWARE versions of this available, I've been using a $15 one for a loooooooong time, and I'm sure there are free ones.

[kaztm @ Jun 14th 2007 6:03AM]

Don't most GPS have this capability?
I can sync my PC's time to GPS using my Garmin V and 60CSx.

[johnzilla @ Jun 14th 2007 7:40AM]

At the same resolution?

Again, for those who still don't get it, there is a need for extremely precise time synchronization in many industries. Banking transactions come to mind, for one. For example, if you only cared up to the second, you could end up with two transactions with the same HH:MM:SS timestamp with the first one overdrawing your account and charging you a fee when in actuality the transactions should have been reversed.

Remember, humans may not need precision down to the nanosecond but that doesn't mean computers and other devices don't need it.

[AlanJC @ Jun 14th 2007 9:16AM]

This is really geared at large networks that need accurate timestamps.

Most corporate networks will have either this, or on ethat picks up the radio time signals.

[KO'M @ Jun 14th 2007 9:41AM]

This is to stand up a corporate ntp server or for environments that do not have (or can not have) internet connectivity. Stand alone instrumentation or classified networks come to mind.

Since timestamps are used for security, and paranoid security types worry that an intruder will jigger with the communication to internet NTP sources, often public ntp servers are not allowed.

What to do? Connect one of these to a unix box and run your own. Or a windows box, yuck.

The same company sells a stand alone appliance...

http://www.timetools.co.uk/ntp-servers/gps-ntp-server-s5100.htm

That probably runs linux and an ntp server. Other companies sell similiar products in the 1.5K-3K range. I've set them up. When they talk about radio, they may mean atomic clock radio, like the alarm clocks you can buy, or they may mean CDMA. The CDMA cell towers send a time signal that many of these boxes use. I miss picking up the exact local time every time I step off a plane since I am on tmobile now.

The real geeky cook thing here is the power over ethernet NTP wall clock.

http://www.timetools.co.uk/digital-wall-clock/index.htm

Come on man, that thing is purty.

[CB @ Jun 14th 2007 9:45AM]

Is RS-232 even fast enough to send the time at 100 ns resolution? Wouldn't the latency of sending from the box to the PC pretty much cancel out any benefits of this?

[jon @ Jun 14th 2007 10:27AM]

I am an engineer and i worked on time synchronization systems that use only a phone line to call an atomic clock in CO. the system is kinda complicated but it was designed with redundancy to keep wall street in sync.
this box to me looks kinda useless, hook up to a phone(possibly a cell) and dial out to the time servers no net required.

[DorianGray @ Jun 14th 2007 11:29AM]

"At the tone, the time will be 1410.000000 hrs, GMT"

[James Scott @ Jun 14th 2007 11:36AM]

Any GPS unit that you can hook into your PC should be able to do this too. I know my Garmin eTrex Legend which costs about as much as its weight in dirt these days will do this too.

[MidniteArrow @ Jun 14th 2007 1:58PM]

As already posted, a lot of you just don't get the market for this. NTP is NOT "good enough" for the market this targets. NTP requires a "time to synch" that is relative the the accuracy. Synching to the millisecond with NTP can take up to 30 minutes, and synching to 100 nanoseconds, which is what this does, would be extremely painful (if even possible, I'm definitely not a NTP guru). NTP also does not ensure the correctness of the time, it only makes sure everyone has the same time. There is no authoritative "right" time in an NTP system unless you add something (like this device) to provide it.

An example of when this is important would be if you are logging message traffic on two different machines in a networked system and it is necessary to know the exact differential, to the 100 nanoseconds, between messages on two different systems. You can do this with NTP, but definitely not in a tactical system due to the synchronization time. Even in a test environment it can be difficult to work with - for example if someone resets a machine they shouldn't have, you may be looking at a 1/2 day of down time due to NTP synchronization (again, given a 100 ns accuracy).

[MidniteArrow @ Jun 14th 2007 2:03PM]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention something. This is differentiated from other GPS systems in that it provides an EIA/TIA 232 connection option as well as a PPS output. The PPS output will allow you to synch up an entire lab as opposed to just one machine. the 232 interface may be required for systems that do not support USB or PPS. In a lab environment, there are a lot of systems that still don't have USB.

This probably also supports insanely long antenna cabling runs. This can be required if you want this box in some fortified lab and need to put the antenna on the roof, for example.

[vcbcvbcvb @ Jun 14th 2007 11:33PM]

Will this still work when the GPS signal is restricted by the US Army during the next invasion?