title: The NIST Automated Computer Time Service.
abstract: The NIST Automated Computer Time Service (ACTS) is a telephone time service designed to provide computers with telephone access to time generated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology at accuracies approaching 1 ms. Features of the service include automated estimation by the transmitter of the telephone-line delay, advanced alert for changes to and from daylight saving time, and advanced notice of insertion of leap seconds. The ASCII-character time code operates with most standard modems and computer systems. The system can be used to set computer clocks and simple hardware can also be developed to set non-computer clock systems.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80303.
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Sullivan
keywords: automation; computers; delay; digital systems; frequency; propagation delay; synchronization; telephone; time