[time-nuts] iPhone keeping better time?

[David J Taylor]

> I doubt we will ever see good time keeping on an IOS type device.  The
> problem is battery life.  Good time keeping requires a  stable local
> oscillator of some kind that must remain powered up 24x7.   But to get
> the long battery life they must power off everything they possibly
> can.  No mater how far technology advances it will always require less
> power to not ruin an oscillator then to run one.
>
> I doubt Apple would run NTP in an iPhone.  They don't want to multi
> task the CPU and there is no stable  local oscillator to be
> disciplined.

Chris, I can see your point, but these devices must have a CPU running all 
the time, otherwise how would the soft power-up work?  Can the drain of a 
CMOS clock chip such as that used in millions of PCs be all that much 
more?

But suppose there is no clock, even just one SNTP sync when starting or 
reconnecting to the network would make the iPad a far better timekeeper - 
no need for full NTP.

Cheers,
David
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