Vespertec to distribute OCP-TAP Time Card made by Timebeat with on-board Miniature Atomic Clock

Release date: December 15, 2022  09:45 GMT

Vespertec today announced that it has partnered with Timebeat.app Ltd to offer the OCP-TAP Time Card, made by Timebeat, for servers requiring highly accurate time data.

The OCP-TAP Time Card features a Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) on an industry standard PCIe card and was developed by the Open Compute Project’s (OCP) Time Appliances Project (TAP). OCP was initiated by Meta in 2011 with a mission to apply the benefits of open source and open collaboration to increase the pace of hardware innovation. The OCP-TAP Project is one such initiative.

Now being distributed by Vespertec, the OCP-TAP Time Card made by Timebeat will greatly benefit industries that require highly accurate, reliable, and synchronous time. OCP-TAP Project Lead, Ahmad Byagowi, said: “The OCP-TAP Time Card provides timing accuracy to a host computer that can transform it into a high-end time server.”

When time is being measured in nanoseconds, precise timing is critical, in particular to prevent market abuse and trading irregularities. Regulators, including the European Security Market Authority (ESMA) and US Security and Exchange commission (SEC), require trading platforms, for example, to precisely synchronise to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and enforce strict time-stamping requirements.

Three key characteristics make the OCP-TAP Time Card a major step forward in assuring resilient high-end time accuracy. Firstly, the form factor — it’s mounted on a standard PCIe card so can be fitted or retrofitted into any vacant PCIe slot in most industry standard servers, so it’s cost effective to buy and maintain. Secondly, it’s open source from OCP and can be used with customised software. Thirdly, the Time Card’s open modular design, which enables a choice of on-board MACs to provide atomic holdover and so support continuous trading even when an external source of timing synchronisation is not available.

Lasse Johnsen a co-founder at Timebeat and a contributor to the OCP-TAP project said: “Timing is a key technology to enable a whole raft of cool technologies, such as financial trading, 5G, broadcast and more. The OCP-TAP Time Card ecosystem is a game changer for anyone needing accurate and reliable sync. Vespertec, with their stand-out service offering for data centre operators, were the natural choice as our go-to-market distribution partner for this breakthrough technology.”

Allan Kaye, MD at Vespertec says: “As specialists in open, high performance data centre infrastructure, and as an OCP solution provider too, Vespertec is delighted to partner with Timebeat as the main distribution source for the OCP-TAP Time Card made by Timebeat. Vespertec specialises in X86 server platforms, meaning we can source, configure, test and deliver servers featuring the OCP-TAP Time Card made by Timebeat. What’s more, we specialise in global deployment, so we are able to handle delivery into locations all over the world, including those with complex logistical and taxation regulations.”

-ENDS-

For press and media enquiries, please contact:

Allan Kaye
Managing Director
Vesper Technologies Ltd
Units 5 Rugby Park
Bletchley Road
Stockport SK4 3EJ
United Kingdom
E: info@vespertec.com
T: +44 (0)161 947 4321

Ian Gough
Co-Founder
Timebeat.app Ltd
35 New Broad Street
London EC2M 1NH
United Kingdom
E: info@timebeat.app
T: +44 (0)7989 140 622