Structure of Clock Implementation
Need to ensure processor is never idle
- Background soak thread in separate process
The first version attempted to track the processor clock in real time and report a single high-precision number. This is difficult because:
- Need to identify transitions in real time clock, while system reports only rounded values
- Need to maintain correspondences in face of scheduler interventions
- Need to limit processor overhead involved
This results in a conflict between stability and responsiveness to change.