Overview

The board TCR511PCI has been designed to receive different IRIG-A/B and AFNOR codes. The decoded date and time can be read via the PCI/PCI-X bus interface and is also transmitted via the board´s RS-232 port. The receiver´s automatic gain control (AGC) allows the reception of modulated IRIG signals within an amplitude range from 600mVpp to 8Vpp. In addition, the TCR511PCI provides an optocoupler input for decoding unmodulated codes with TTL- or RS485-level for example. A buffered real time clock keeps time and date after power down.
The drivers package for Windows contains a time adjustment service which runs in the background and adjusts the Windows system time continously and smoothly. A monitor program is also included which lets the user check the status of the device and the time adjustment service, and can be used to modify configurable parameters.

The driver package for Linux contains a kernel driver which allows the board to be used as a reference time source for the NTP daemon which is shipped with most Linux distributions. This also turns the computer into a NTP time server which can also provide accurate time to other NTP clients on the network. Some command line tools can be used to setup configurable parameters and monitor the status of the board.

Additional drivers packages are available for DOS, Novell NetWare, and OS/2. At the bottom of this page there´s a link to the download area.

The device´s serial port can be used to update the card´s firmware. Additionally it can be connected to the serial port of a computer to use the card as reference time source under operating systems where a serial time string is supported, e.g. by NTP, but no kernel device driver is available.