Applications Support

Operating systems and distributed applications require synchronized time measurements to coordinate their processes. DTS synchronizes the system clocks in a network with each other, and in the presence of an external time-provider, to the UTC time standard. Any distributed application that reads the system clock, which is the majority of applications, needs DTS. As the number of distributed applications and systems in a network increases, DTS becomes increasingly vital to process coordination.

There are several types of existing applications that use the synchronized time DTS provides to system clocks. These applications must reference synchronized system clocks in order to coordinate the events that occur throughout the network. Applications use synchronized clocks for the following functions:

· Event Measurement - Applications can read the system clock to start and stop timers and to measure the elapsed time between events.

· Event Reporting - Applications can read the clock when an event occurs and append a timestamp to the event report.

· Event Scheduling - Applications can read the system clock and add a relative time to determine the occurrence of a future event.

· Event Sequencing - Applications can determine the order of events by reading the event report timestamps that are derived from the synchronized system clock.

For new applications, DTS provides an Applications Programming Interface (API). The API provides routines that new applications can use to obtain and manipulate binary timestamps. The DTS API supports ANSI C language constructs. (See OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Core Components for further information on the DTS API.)