SAN JOSE, Calif. — October 12, 2005 — Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMM), a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and services, today announced its XLi IEEE 1588 Grandmaster Clock with GPS (Global Positioning System) reference. IEEE 1588 is a new protocol that enables very accurate synchronization over Ethernet LANs and for the first time, offers users the ability to synchronize clocks within better than one hundred nanoseconds accuracy, with only a network connection. Symmetricom’s first deployment of the IEEE 1588 protocol is in its versatile XLi GPS Time and Frequency System.
“Symmetricom is the first to offer an IEEE 1588 based solution for time and frequency synchronization applications, and in doing so, will provide customer guidance in 1588 acceptance and verification testing, adoption and deployments during the infancy of this technology,” commented Paul Skoog, product marketing manager at Symmetricom. “The coupling of the IEEE 1588 protocol with hardware time stamping is a breakthrough technology that will reshape synchronization applications going forward, and is the next-generation protocol in time transfer and synchronization.”
IEEE 1588 enables sub-microsecond time-of-day synchronization between clocks over standard Ethernet LAN infrastructure. Previously 1 to 10 microsecond time of day synchronization was the de facto standard using IRIG-B with dedicated coaxial cabling and 1 to 10 milliseconds was the typical synchronization accuracy using Ethernet and the Network Time Protocol (NTP). High accuracy time distributed over standard Ethernet LAN infrastructure offers compelling benefits in the areas of cable infrastructure costs savings (i.e. no parallel timing and data networks); improved accuracy for distributed measurements and processes; improved control system techniques; and leveraging the innovation/investment wave of network centric technology and solutions.
As an increasing number of applications integrate Ethernet and the benefits of speed, flexibility and connectivity are exploited, IEEE 1588 is expected to be adopted as an enabling technology across numerous applications because it will change the way problems are solved. The standard is already being deployed in applications in industrial automation, turbine control systems and submarine sonar systems. As this trend continues and performance requirements become more stringent, demand for more precise timing and synchronization via Ethernet is also expected to increase.
The Boeing Company is the first customer to deploy the XLi IEEE 1588 Grandmaster clock. It will be implemented in the new 787 network based flight test data system. Boeing chose the XLi due to its modularity and Symmetricom’s commitment to Boeing to deliver IEEE 1588 functionality.
“The XLi IEEE 1588 Grandmaster Clock from Symmetricom, with its ultra-precise time and frequency synchronization capabilities over local area networks (LANs), is a welcome addition to data acquisition networks,” stated Sunderraju Ramachandran, program manager at Frost and Sullivan, a leading market research company. “With an initial introduction to the IEEE 1588 technology community, it should be well received by the test & measurement, military, aerospace, industrial automation and networked sensor markets.”
Symmetricom’s new XLi IEEE 1588 Grandmaster clock will be displayed at the 2005 IEEE 1588 Conference sponsored by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Instrumentation and Measurement Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on October 10-12, 2005 in Winterthur, Switzerland. Paul Skoog, product marketing manager and Doug Arnold, chief scientist, at Symmetricom presented the paper, “An IEEE 1588 Grandmaster Clock” yesterday during Session 3 on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 2:40 p.m. CET. For more information, visit ieee1588.nist.gov/.
Pricing & Availability
The XLi IEEE 1588 Grandmaster is released to limited availability. IEEE 1588 Grandmaster capability is designed as a field-upgradeable option to the XLi GPS Time and Frequency System. Contact Symmetricom for pricing.
For more information please visit: www.IEEE-1588.symmttm.com.
About Symmetricom, Inc.
As a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and services, Symmetricom provides “Perfect Timing” to customers around the world, including communication service providers, network equipment manufacturers, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), aerospace contractors, enterprises, governments and research facilities. Since 1985, the company’s timing, frequency and synchronization solutions have helped define the world’s standards, delivering precision, reliability and efficiency to wireless and wireline networks, instrumentation and testing applications and network time management. Deployed in more than 90 countries, instrumentation products include atomic clocks, cesium and rubidium standards, VME, VXI, crystal oscillators, Bus Timing, PCI cards and Global Positioning System (GPS) solutions for instrumentation applications, alphanumeric displays, as well as network time servers for Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronization and time synchronization solutions. In 2002, Symmetricom acquired TrueTime and Datum, enhancing its position in the world time and frequency markets. Symmetricom is based in San Jose, Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.symmetricom.com.