3. How do Computer Clocks work?

Last update: June 27, 2022 16:22 UTC (1a7aee0a0)

This section tries to explain the basics of software clocks used in computers. In principle, such clocks just consist of an oscillator and a counter.

---

3.1 Bits and Registers

Computers are good at adding bits. Therefore time is stored in a number of bits, and adding to these bits makes the time go on. The meaning of the value “zero” has to be defined separately (usually this is called the epoch).

Using more bits can widen the range of the time value, or it can increase the resolution of the stored time.

Example 3.1: Range and Resolution

If we use 8 bits to store a time stamp, there can be 256 different values. If we choose to store seconds, our resolution is one second, and the range is from 0 to 255 seconds. If we prefer to store the time in minutes, we can store up to 255 minutes.

With 64 bits you could have nanosecond resolution while still having a range significantly longer than your life.