SYNC-WAVE: a high accuracy and low overhead algorithm for clock syncronization in transputer networks

This paper addresses the implementation of global time in transputer systems by software synchronization of local processor timers. After an introduction on the synchronization problem, SYNC_WAVE, a synchronization algorithm for multicomputer architectures, is briefly described. The rest of the paper gives details of an existing implementation of SYNC_WAVE for transputer-based systems. Most of the devised code is presented and commented on, showing the methods used to improve synchronization accuracy and to read the global clock from within a user process. The performance results obtained are shown, and the usefulness and portability of the proposed code are discussed.