Patent ID: 8458361

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: obtaining a Set STP (Server Time Protocol) Controls machine instruction for accessing a first control block of memory and a second control block of memory, the 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 for specifying a size for said first control block; a command code field for specifying a set STP Controls command; an STP operation field for specifying an operation to be performed by said timing facility, the operation being one of timing facility synchronization and timing facility control setting; and executing said machine instruction in accordance with the contents of one or more 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; and providing said obtained operation to be performed to said timing facility.