Patent ID: 7689718

Claim:
A computer program product for communicating with a timing facility that provides timing coordination for a computer system, said computer program product comprising: a storage medium readable by a server and storing instructions for execution by the server for performing a method comprising: fetching a Set STP (Server Time Protocol) Controls machine instruction for accessing a first and a second control block of memory, said first control block of memory being a request block and the second control block of memory being a response block, the machine instruction being defined for computer execution according to a computer architecture, the first control block including: a command-request-block length field in said first control block, the command-request-block length field for specifying a size for said first control block; a command code field in said first control block, the command code field for specifying a set STP Controls command; an STP Operation field in said first control block, said STP Operation field for specifying an operation to be performed by said timing facility, said operation being selected from the group consisting of timing facility synchronization and timing facility control setting, said operation causing a Time of Day (TOD) clock to be synchronized with Coordinated Server Time, in response to the server being in STP-timing mode and a clock-source state indicating that the clock-source state is usable; and a fourth field in said first control block, the fourth field for specifying timing facility parameters for said control setting operation; executing said machine instruction in accordance with the contents of said fields in said first control block, said executing comprising: accessing said command code field of said first control block to obtain said command; accessing said STP Operation field of said first control block to obtain said operation to be performed; providing said obtained command to said timing facility; providing said obtained operation to be performed to said timing facility; responsive to said STP operation to be performed being a Sync Clock operation and responsive to the server being in the STP-timing mode and said clock source state indicating usable clock source state, causing the timing facility to synchronize the Time of Day clock with Coordinated Server Time, placing information regarding the executing of said machine instruction in said second control block, said information comprising information about executing said instruction; and responsive to said operation to be performed being a Set-Controls operation, setting STP controls for the server and the facility to the values provided in the request block.