NIST Unveils Chip-scale Atomic Clock

grumling writes "The heart of a minuscule atomic clock, believed to be 100 times smaller than any other atomic clock has been demonstrated by scientists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), opening the door to atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices for secure wireless communications, more precise navigation and other applications. "

Comments

This had to come

[say]

After all, an atomic timekeeper is just that: atomic. It only needs to measure the radiation of a cesium atom. So the core of the clock is simple to make. All the measuring equipment, OTOH, has been huge.

But it's only natural that this becomes smaller. Give the rich part of the world ten years, and we're all spending our time wearing atomic _and_ digital watches.

Interestingly, this could affect our lifestyle. The more synchronized timepieces become, doing stuff in sync and on time gets more feasible. But that also lowers the acceptance for being late and inaccurate. And I know that I always come a few minutes late to every appointment.

Will people start yelling at me for coming only seconds late? Will the unspoken five-minute courtesy time ("the meeting starts at 2pm" really means "2:05pm") disappear? Will I become more stressful because of all this accuracy?

So, while this seems to be a step forward for mankind, it does not necessarily create more happiness. Just like an entire host of new inventions.

What bothers me with this is that it is not really useful in a wristwatch (Yes I know - they aren't making it for wristwatches yet - but just wait!). But because everyone else has one, I'll be forced to get one as well. Just like the cellular phone. And then it starts affecting my life. Scary.

Does wifi/cellular marginalize this?

[theluckyleper]

I've always imagined that the proliferation of wireless communications would eventually replace the need for having any sort of portable timing devices... I mean, my computer updates its clock from some atomic NTP server. A wifi clock could do the same.

Why carry an atomic clock, when you can talk to an even more accurate atomic clock, through the air? Although I guess the few ms of lag between the request and response might introduce too much error for some applications?

Re:Great for GPS

[LiquidCoooled]

There will ALWAYS be a need for an outside reference time source.

Whilst the device will keep track of time with an accuracy of 1 second in 300 years, what it can't do is keep time without power.

The effect means a video recorder still shows 00:00, just a lot more accurately than before.

Battery operated? Not likely.

[unix_hacker]

The story claims that this device pulls 75 mw and that it can be run on batteries. Assuming a 3V system, that's 25 mA of current. If one if these was in a typical portable device with a 750 mAH battery, it would last for 30 hours. Less, of course, if you actually turned on the device. Basically your battery would go dead in a day or so even with the device turned off.

For reference, real time clock chips that are used in portable electronic devices today pull about 3 microwatts of current -- almost 10,000 times less than this device.