Every mobile device needs to know the time down to the quadrillionth of a second.
David Pescovitz writes about the development of an atomic clock that’s the size of a grain of rice and how the advent of wireless communication is driving the need to create accurate time:
“Most clocks that we check throughout the day are wrong. For example, your wristwatch — whether it’s a Swatch or a Rolex — probably drifts at least a few seconds each week. Of course, that’s probably imperceptible even if you’re so overbooked that every second counts. However, wireless technologies are even more tightly scheduled than you are. Indeed, outfitting mobile devices with clocks that are accurate to the quadrillionths of a second could ratchet up cell phone reliability and GPS accuracy while packing more signals into the dwindling radio spectrum.
That’s why scientists are developing tiny clocks that are stable to one part in 10 billion, meaning they lose or gain a maximum of just one second every 300 years.” [more] (via Boing Boing)
related links
The Feature: Counting on Tiny Atomic Clocks
UPDATE:
Time after time: North of Boston company uses atoms to create precise timepieces
Filed under: Adnan @ 1:20 pm ,
4 Comments
»
The URI to TrackBack this entry is this. (You can right click and copy the link)
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
[…] of wrist watches will somehow lead us to cell phone technology - whether it may be about atomic clocks, next generation materials, new interfaces* , or time applications, it seems as if […]
Pingback by wristfashion.com » Watch Slash Phone — 12/15/2004 @ 1:47 pm
I cant help feeling that anything that increses GPS accuracy has a sinister undertone- call me a raving sceptic but GPS just scares me!
Comment by for who's benefit? — 12/15/2004 @ 3:44 pm
notice: I updated the post with an additional relevant link.
Comment by adnan — 12/22/2004 @ 10:56 am
Spent some great time in your site, really enjoyed it
Comment by Anonymous — 7/24/2005 @ 8:17 pm