In message <[email protected]>, Hal Mu
rray writes:

>The IBM 360 systems starting in 1964 used the power line frequency.  (A 
>location in low memory got bumped at 300 counts per second.  5 per cycle on 
>60 Hz and 6 per cycle on 50 Hz.)  I wonder how much the power timekeeping 
>wandered back then relative to today.

It used to be pretty good, because people used synchronous motors to drive
clocks so the power companies tried to keep the long-term frequency
correct.

In Denmark they usually lost a couple of seconds during the day and
gained them back during the night, similarly they lost half a minute
over winter and gained it back over summer.

After deregulation nobody gets paid to keep the long term frequency,
so mains is no good, actually down-right bad, for timekeeping anymore.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
[email protected]         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
_______________________________________________
LEAPSECS mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs

Reply via email to