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posted by martyb on Friday August 31 2018, @02:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the Rock-around-the-clock dept.

An invention born in a dusty basement two decades ago called the Sapphire clock may be the key to future technology innovation in Australia starting with the defence systems:

A CLOCK that will protect Australia is about to be integrated into our defence systems to pinpoint any threats targeting our nation.

In fact, the clock is the best in the world because of its ability to hold time better than anything else. [*]

Basically, the Sapphire Clock keeps time within one second over 40 million years.

The reason that's important is because its precision accuracy enhances our current defence radar system, allowing even more detailed information to be received about missiles, planes and ships that could be a threat to Australia.

University of Adelaide's Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing director Professor Andre Luiten said the technology that could save Australia came about in a "dusty basement" 20 years ago.

[...] The Sapphire Clock was designed to work alongside Australia's current linchpin for defence, the Jindalee Over-The-Horizon Radar Network (JORN) system, to emit signals that are 1000 times purer than current methods, which means even smaller objects can be seen at even greater distances.

[*] Maybe they are not aware of atomic clocks, some of which are accurate to 1 second in billions of years?

See also: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/ipas/research/nls/pmg-research/SapphireClock/


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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday August 31 2018, @07:34PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday August 31 2018, @07:34PM (#728919)

    Weren't the early failures of the Patriot missile system during the first Gulf War due to clock issues? If I recall correctly, a bug in the timing causes the phased array radar to not look in the direction the incoming missile was at.

    I think the correction was to reboot the system's computer every day or so to fix the error.

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    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh