[ntp:questions] Re: bc637PCI-U Reference Clock Driver

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Tue Apr 26 18:01:28 UTC 2005


Greg wrote:

>Does anyone know if the bc637 PCI card (from Symmetricom/Datum/Bancomm) can be
>used as a reference clock?
>
>I am trying to use a bc637PCI-U GPS timing card as an NTP reference clock for a
>local isolated network, but this version of the bc635 card is not listed in the
>list of available clock drivers.
>
>The card is installed in a Linux server (FC1/2.4 kernel) and accessed via a
>standard device driver provided by the vendor.
>
>http://www.symmttm.com/products_blt_bc637PCI-U.asp
>
>Thanks,
>Greg
>
>  
>
AFAIK it is not supported.  Another person, Ramanathan Palaniappan 
<ram at cs.wisc.edu>, has been trying to get one to work without success.  
As of the last time he posted here, his problems seemed as much due to 
cluelessness as to the lack of built in support for the device.  Try 
searching at http://www.groups.google.com using Ramanthan's name and 
comp.protocols.time.ntp as the group to search and you should be able to 
get the history on this.

The BC637PCI should make a fine reference clock if somebody writes an 
ntpd refclock driver for it.   Since TrueTime (now Symmetricomm) no 
longer makes or sells the device and availability is limited, I'm not 
sure it's worth doing.  If I had such a device and the Solaris software 
developers kit for it, I might be tempted.  I don't feel I can afford to 
buy one!




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