[ntp:questions] NTP vs BCD vs Unix ('unsinged int' or 'unsigned long int') time format coding: is there a sensible explaination for the differences in coding?
Max Power
mikehack at u.washington.edu
Mon May 8 20:01:10 UTC 2006
NTP vs BCD vs Unix ('unsigned int' or 'unsigned long int') time format
coding: is there a sensible explanation for the differences in coding?
I like [raw] Unix Time's lack of ambiguity is best suited for setting the
clocks on most computers and as a universal unambiguous binary time and date
format, but NTP-64 and NTP-128 are best suited for scientific and business
applications (including modern OS file system time stamps).
BCD seems to be best suited for consumer devices, for its ease of
decoding -- but BCD formats are not as standardized as NTP nor are they as
unambiguous as [raw] Unix Time. BCD's only advantage is ability to be
designed for 'bit averaging for error correction. Raw Unix Time's ability to
use bit averaging is only slightly less optimum than BCD, as raw Unix Time
has about 6 volatile bits in the last LSB bit positions.
More information about the questions
mailing list