Synchronization: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:43, 25 May 2024

Revision as of 18:28, 17 September 2024

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[[File:Rockettes 2239918515 96df95270e.jpg|thumb|Synchronized dancers]]

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In [[electrical engineering]] terms, for digital logic and data transfer, a [[synchronous circuit]] requires a [[clock signal]]. A clock signal simply signals the start or end of some time period, often measured in microseconds or nanoseconds, that has an arbitrary relationship to any other system of measurement of the passage of minutes, hours, and days.

In a different sense, electronic systems are sometimes synchronized to make events at points far apart appear simultaneous or near-simultaneous from a certain perspective.{{efn|Albert Einstein proved in 1905 in his first relativity paper that there actually are no such things as absolutely simultaneous events.}} Timekeeping technologies such as the [[Global Positioning System|GPS]] satellites and [[Network Time Protocol]] (NTP) provide real-time access to a close approximation to the [[UTC]] timescale and are used for many terrestrial synchronization applications of this kind.

In [[computer science]] (especially [[parallel computing]]), synchronization is the coordination of simultaneous [[thread (computing)|threads]] or [[Process (computing)|processes]] to complete a task with correct runtime order and no unexpected [[race condition]]s; see [[synchronization (computer science)]] for details.