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Re: Autocross Timing/Scoring Software

To: Paul Foster <pfoster@gdi.net>
Subject: Re: Autocross Timing/Scoring Software
From: dennis@raceamerica.com
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 13:18:18 -0700
Paul,

You are absolutely right, there are OSes and external clock devices which
would provide accuracy from the raw PC clock.  The raw PC clock is an
accurate crystal controlled device.  You must consider the reality that the
software timing solutions offered today run under Windows or DOS, and they
do run quite different using a 386 compared to a Pentium III.  That's no
BS.

Dennis Laczny
RACEAMERICA Timing Systems
http://www.raceamerica.com


>Sorry but this is total BS. The fact that the PC clock is inaccurate
>under Windows or MSDOS has nothing to do with what the hardware is
>capable of doing given the proper realtime programming. I agree there is
>no Win32 API call that will give you millisecond accuracy, but there a
>loads of realtime OSes for the PC that will give you much greater
>accuracy than that - I'd be willing to guess at the microsecond level.
>
>The real time clock inaccuracies can be circumvented in a number of
>ways. Probably the best way would be to purchase a programmable interval
>timer that would provide hardware interrupts on a regular basis. A
>device driver would have to be written to make the results available to
>a PC based application but this isn't rocket science...
>
>Paul Foster
>25 years of realtime programming...



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