Modular, scalable, resilient PNT. A full-spec PCIe grandmaster in a single card.
< 10 ns
GNSS to UTC
Rb / DOCXO
Holdover option
FHHL / HHHL
Form factor
Open
Source + hardware
Gallery
Ambient glow — DOCXO oscillator warming up
Ambient glow — DOCXO oscillator warming up
Installation — PCIe slot in 1U server
Installation — PCIe slot in 1U server
In use — installing the card
In use — installing the card
Front face — SFP+ and antenna connectors
Front face — SFP+ and antenna connectors
In use — card seated and running
In use — card seated and running
Accuracy — < 10 ns GNSS pulse timing
Accuracy — < 10 ns GNSS pulse timing
Deployed — running the TimeBeat Agent in production
Deployed — running the TimeBeat Agent in production
Interactive 3D
Drag to rotate the Open TimeCard and explore the board from any angle — SMA connectors, SFP cage, GNSS input and the DOCXO/Rubidium oscillator bay.
Silicon detail
What it is
The Open TimeCard is a full-featured PCIe time synchronisation card that turns any server into a complete grandmaster. With built-in Ethernet switching, multi-band GNSS, an onboard high power compute module running the TimeBeat Agent, and your choice of DOCXO or Rubidium holdover, a single card can distribute nanosecond-accurate time over NTP, PTP, PPS, SyncE and raw frequency — with anti-jam / anti-spoof protection at the GNSS front end.
A complete PTP grandmaster in a single PCIe card.
Tell us your server platform and deployment context — we'll confirm fit, pricing and lead time within one business day.
Capabilities
DOCXO HOLDOVER
1.5 µs drift over 24 hours
SFP+ · SMA
Backplate connectors
PCIe FULL/HALF
3 per 1RU chassis
u-blox LEA-F9T multi-band receiver tracks GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou simultaneously for < 10 ns accuracy to UTC and active integrity monitoring against spoofing.
Built-in transparent clock with SFP port and SyncE client/server modes. Serve PTP, NTP, PPS and frequency directly from the card — no external switching required.
Choose the DOCXO — a Double-Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (1.5 µs / 24 h), the Rubidium Black (500 ns / 24 h), or the Rubidium Black+ for elite performance (120 ns / 24 h, 60 µs / 1 year drift).
Onboard high power compute runs Linux and the TimeBeat Agent out of the box. Bring your own monitoring, or ship metrics to the TimeBeat cloud.
Differential LVDS outputs, low-phase-noise frequency generation from 1 Hz to 1 GHz, and 8 timestamping inputs for external events.
Full-height and half-height PCIe profiles. Three cards per 1RU. Use your own chassis, OS and monitoring — we build the time, you build the system.
Ships with the TimeBeat software stack pre-configured. The jitter attenuation engine filters network noise, asymmetric delay and oscillator phase noise from every timestamp — delivering a clean, stable clock signal with sub-nanosecond residual phase noise to your downstream applications.
Specifications
Timing & holdover
Ethernet & PTP
GNSS & RF
Onboard compute & clock gen
Free download
Full specs, block diagram and ordering information — emailed to you instantly.
How to deploy
Step 01
Open PCIe slot in any standard 1U server. Full-height or half-height profile — no tool kit required. Connect the GNSS antenna to the SMA port on the backplate.
Step 02
Flash the TimeBeat Agent. The onboard high power compute runs a pre-configured stack. Set your PTP domain, point your fleet at the grandmaster IP — done.
Step 03
Sync Insight picks up every metric the agent emits: offset, GNSS C/N₀, holdover state, OSNMA integrity, jitter. Dashboards, alerting, and 30-day compliance reports in one view.
Ready to put one in your rack?
Get a quote for your deployment — server platform, quantity, oscillator grade and lead time confirmed in one response.
In your network
PCIe grandmaster installed in host server · PTP · NTP · SyncE distributed to fleet
Watch the demo
Hardware walkthrough, install, configuration and first measurement.
From GPS satellite to /dev/ptp0 — a full animated walkthrough of clock drift, signal path, card internals, and how ptp4l distributes sub-30 ns time across your network.
Standards & compliance
Get pricing
Tell us how many units, where they’re going, and the deployment context. We’ll come back with pricing, lead times, and any technical recommendations — within one business day.
Library
Product sheets, engineering guides, TCO models and blogs relevant to this hardware.
What a PTP grandmaster clock actually does, how to choose one, and what separates a grandmaster you can trust from one that quietly drifts. Written by TimeBeat's engineering team for network architects deploying IEEE 1588 in production.
Secure, resilient timing for mission-critical communications, radar, UAVs and C4ISR.
Nanosecond-accurate synchronisation for grid stability, substation automation and renewable integration.
Process safety, incident response and cybersecurity through precision timing.
For most of computing, millisecond-class clock synchronisation is fine. For a growing list of use cases — finance, broadcast, 5G, AI, distributed databases — it isn't. A field guide to recognising when your application has crossed the line and millisecond-grade time has become a liability.
Meta's published engineering blog has documented one of the most ambitious PTP deployments in the industry — replacing NTP across the entire fleet with hardware-timestamped IEEE 1588. What they built, why they built it, and what it tells the rest of the industry about where hyperscale timing is heading.
