[LEAPSECS] Lets get REAL about time.

[Michael Deckers]

   On 2012-01-20 15:46, Gerard Ashton wrote:


> For the smallest time resolution required, we might suppose that at some

> point in the

> future there might be a need to account for transmission delay from one

> part

> of a computer to another. The smallest location that I can imagine being of

> interest even in a future computer is the diameter of a hydrogen atom,

> about 0.1 nm. The time for light to travel this distance is about 3 as, or

> about 2^-58 s.


   Just a correction on your arithmetic: light travels at 0.3 m
   in 1 ns, so it takes only about 0.3 as for the distance
   of 0.1 nm, not 3 as.

   To set the scale, the finest resolution possible with
   the time of day register in IBM zArchitecture machines
   is 2^-52 µs =~ 0.2 zs, which is 3 orders of magnitude
   below your proposal.

   Michael Deckers.