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Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system

Leslie Lamport · Communications of the ACM · 1978

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Author / responsible party
Leslie Lamport
Publisher
Communications of the ACM
Year
1978
Language
English

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The concept of one event happening before another in a distributed system is examined, and is shown to define a partial ordering of the events. A distributed algorithm is given for synchronizing a system of logical clocks which can be used to totally order the events. The use of the total ordering is illustrated with a method for solving synchronization problems. The algorithm is then specialized for synchronizing physical clocks, and a bound is derived on how far out of synchrony the clocks can become.

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APA 7

Lamport, L. (1978). Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system. https://doi.org/10.1145/359545.359563

MLA

Lamport, Leslie. "Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system." 1978. https://doi.org/10.1145/359545.359563.

Chicago

Lamport, Leslie. 1978. "Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system.". https://doi.org/10.1145/359545.359563.

Harvard

Lamport, L. 1978, Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system, Communications of the ACM, available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/359545.359563 [Accessed 9 Aug. 2026].

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Title
Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system
Author / contributors
Leslie Lamport
Publisher
Communications of the ACM
Publication year
1978
Language
English

Subjects

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Synchronizing; Computer science; Synchronization (alternating current); Event (particle physics); Distributed computing; Clock synchronization; Distributed algorithm; Algorithm; Theoretical computer science; Real-time computing; Computer network; Physics
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