Timing and Clock-Distribution Interface

A single disciplined time base lets sensors, actuators, and the twin agree on when everything happened; this interface distributes and audits that clock.

One clock, whole plant

Fusing 60+ diagnostics and timing a pellet launch both require that every node agree on the current time to sub-microsecond precision. The timing interface distributes a disciplined clock (PTP-class) to every acquisition and actuation node and audits the synchronization so the twin can align heterogeneous streams.

What it guarantees

# per-node time discipline (PTP-class)
offset = master_time - node_time
node_clock.adjust(offset)                 # steer, don't step
assert abs(offset) <= sync_budget         # e.g. sub-microsecond
# every sample/command carries this time base
sample.t = node_clock.now()

Two properties matter: accuracy (each node close to the master) and bounded skew (nodes close to each other). A pellet flight-time computed on one clock and a plasma phase on another must share a time base or the deposition timing is wrong. The interface continuously measures per-node offset and flags any node that exceeds the sync budget.

Consumers

• Owner: L1/L2 for distribution and audit.
• Feeds the pellet-injector timing and every fast loop.
• Underpins latency budgets.

The clock is steered rather than stepped: a node's time is nudged toward the master continuously so timestamps never jump backward, which would break ordered fault records and deterministic replay. When a node exceeds its sync budget the interface flags it and downgrades the trust of that node's samples until it reconverges, so a drifting clock is treated like a drifting sensor.

Owner: L1/L2 for distribution and audit. Design-and-simulation specification, applied identically to both machines and validated against the twin before hardware commissioning.