Description
Product Description
This PCI Express slot card is the best choice for adding a highly accurate time base to your servers or workstations. It can be used as a stratum 0 reference time source for NTP and transforms any machine into a Stratum 1 NTP server without consuming additional physical space in your server room.
The GPS180PEX comes with a truckload of features to enable software developers to overcome the timing limitations of COTS operating systems like Linux or Windows. The powerful and highly functional Meinberg API (Application Programming Interface) delivers an easy to use and portable way of accessing all Meinberg bus level timing devices, including ISA, PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express and USB time synchronization products.
Legacy interfaces like IRIG, 1PPS or serial time strings can be used to connect other equipment to the PCIe slot card and transfer the time base over dedicated cable connections to systems which cannot be synchronized via NTP or other network protocols.
The new Memory Mapped Access feature offers a fast, simple and efficient way of reading the current time with high precision.
The drivers package for Windows contains a time adjustment service which runs in the background and adjusts the Windows system time continuously 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, if run with administrator rights.
The driver packages for Linux and FreeBSD contain a kernel driver which allows the board to be used as a reference time source for the NTP daemon which is shipped with most Unix-like operating systems. This also turns the computer into an NTP time server which can also provide accurate time to NTP clients on the network. Some command line tools can be used to setup configurable parameters and monitor the status of the board.
For usage of the card on other operating systems please contact Meinberg support: techsupport@meinberg.de.
The device’s serial port is not required for operation but can be used to update the card’s firmware, or provide another computer with the current time via a serial time string.
