Patent ID: 7145837

Claim:
A method for synchronizing time of day information amongst a plurality of communication adapters, said method comprising the steps of: designating one of said adapters as a master adapter and others of said adapters being designated as slave adapters; incrementing a clock in at least one other of said slave adapters; receiving, at said at least one slave adapter, a signal from said master adapter indicating that said signal contains valid time stamp information; comparing, in said at least one slave adapter, said received time stamp information from said master adapter, with time information in said slave adapter clock; upon condition that said received time stamp information indicates a later time than said slave adapter clock, loading said received time stamp information into said slave adapter clock; and upon condition that said received time stamp information indicates an earlier time than said slave adapter clock, correcting said slave adapter clock to a value reached by incrementing to equality both values but with said adapter clock value being incremented by half the amount of said received time stamp value.