Cambridge, UK-based Net Connect Ltd has released a Unix-compatible version of its computer time management system, Time-Base/NLM. The company, which started selling Novell Inc’s NetWare-based system three months ago, is hoping that it will solve the problem of time degradation on servers in large networks. According to Steven Bacon, a director of the company, existing servers often use battery-backed clocks that are irregular, meaning that computer-based time often end up out of sync in a networked environment. TimeBaseNLM is a piece of Novell NetWare code that connects to a hardware device made by Infotec Inc. The device has an antenna that picks up signals from the UK National Physics Laboratory atomic clock in Rugby, West Midlands. The laboratory has a Caesium clock. The antenna can be placed externally in buildings to avoid electrical interference, the company says. Updating the time every three days, the product provides servers with a threshold of three seconds; any time lapse beyond this will kick TimeBase into action to update the product. Bacon says the product will be useful for mission-critical applications because it will help to ensure the validity of date when it is accessed according to its time stamp. It can also bring cosmetic benefits, he adds. Without it, disparate time readings on different servers could mean that an electronic mail item could be positioned on a system after a reply had been sent in chronological terms. TimeBase/NLM with Unix communications will still run under NetWare, but will connect into Unix servers. The new version will be released in January. The software costs UKP700 and the hardware costs UKP360.
