Retrieving system time 20 April 2024 05:12:43 UTC This routine typically adds one tick to the system clock (a simple counter) and handles other periodic housekeeping tasks ( preemption, etc.) before returning to the task the CPU was executing before the interruption. The system clock is typically implemented as a programmable interval timer that periodically interrupts the CPU, which then starts executing a timer interrupt service routine. Those that require such information typically initialize their base time upon rebooting by obtaining the current time from an external source, such as from a time server or external clock, or by prompting the user to manually enter the current time. Many such controller systems operate without knowledge of the external time. Microcontrollers operating within embedded systems (such as the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other similar systems) do not always have internal hardware to keep track of time. With current technology, most modern computers keep track of local civil time, as do many other household and personal devices such as VCRs, DVRs, cable TV receivers, PDAs, pagers, cell phones, fax machines, telephone answering machines, cameras, camcorders, central air conditioners, and microwave ovens. Prior to the widespread availability of computer networks, most personal computer systems that did track system time did so only with respect to local time and did not make allowances for different time zones. Add-on peripheral boards that included real-time clock chips with on-board battery back-up were available for the IBM PC and XT, but the IBM AT was the first widely available PC that came equipped with date/time hardware built into the motherboard. These included systems that ran the CP/M operating system, as well as early models of the Apple II, the BBC Micro, and the Commodore PET, among others. Most first-generation personal computers did not keep track of dates and times. Process times are a tally of CPU instructions or clock cycles and generally have no direct correlation to wall time.įile systems keep track of the times that files are created, modified, and/or accessed by storing timestamps in the file control block (or inode) of each file and directory. It may be split into user and system CPU time, representing the time spent executing user code and system kernel code, respectively. This will also be a potentially much larger problem for existing data file formats that contain system timestamps stored as 32-bit values.Ĭlosely related to system time is process time, which is a count of the total CPU time consumed by an executing process. These systems will require some form of remediation, similar to efforts required to solve the earlier Year 2000 problem. These time values will overflow ('run out of bits') after the end of their system time epoch, leading to software and hardware errors. Many implementations that currently store system times as 32-bit integer values will suffer from the impending Year 2038 problem. Library routines are also generally provided that convert calendar times into system times. Library subroutines that handle such conversions may also deal with adjustments for time zones, daylight saving time (DST), leap seconds, and the user's locale settings. For example, the Unix system time 1 000 000 000 seconds since the beginning of the epoch translates into the calendar time 9 September 2001 01:46:40 UT.

System time can be converted into calendar time, which is a form more suitable for human comprehension. Systems that implement the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows API, such as Windows 9x and Windows NT, provide the system time as both SYSTEMTIME, represented as a year/month/day/hour/minute/second/milliseconds value, and FILETIME, represented as a count of the number of 100-nanosecond ticks since 1 January 1601 00:00:00 UT as reckoned in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. For example, Unix and POSIX-compliant systems encode system time (' Unix time') as the number of seconds elapsed since the start of the Unix epoch at 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UT, with exceptions for leap seconds.

System time is measured by a system clock, which is typically implemented as a simple count of the number of ticks that have transpired since some arbitrary starting date, called the epoch. In this sense, time also includes the passing of days on the calendar.

In computer science and computer programming, system time represents a computer system's notion of the passage of time. Not to be confused with Clock generator, Clock signal, or Clock rate.

Convert epoch time to wall clock