Re:F-35 radar system has bug that requires hard reboot in fl...
by vonmoltke on Thursday March 10, 2016 @02:30PM
(#11261541)
The standard way to do timing in a system like this is for each subsystem to run its own binary clock, with the main system sending period time-of-day messages to keep everything externally synchronized. In that sense, all the systems do have one clock. Many do not need to worry about wall clock time or synchronization, though.
I don't think a single atomic clock would do it -- sounds like they'd need a high accuracy clock for each separate subsystem.
But unlike distributed systems, it seems like an aircraft is small enough to have one clock that everyone uses - any idea why they don't do that? Single (or too much of a) point of failure? Disparate vendors can't agree on a standard? Too much extra wiring or other complexity?