Feature: Clock and timing electronics


Precision timing shifts to the centre of system design


By Deepak Tripathi, Director of Product Marketing, Communications, Enterprise & Datacenter, SiTime


T


he rapid evolution of AI, high-performance computing and accelerated networking has fundamentally reshaped timing system design. Every


digital system depends on a precise and coherent source of time to synchronise computation, communication and data movement. For decades, providing that timing reference was largely an implementation detail rather than an architectural challenge. Today, AI training clusters, smart industrial infrastructure and next-generation networking platforms are scaling to unprecedented levels of performance and distribution, making timing one of the most consequential architectural decisions in system design. Historically, timing was oſten treated as a late-stage implementation task. In


For system architects,


programmable timing devices are increasingly enabling a shift from hardware-defined timing architectures to software-


configurable timing infrastructure


22 November 2026 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


many systems, a stable oscillator, a PLL and a clock tree were sufficient to meet performance requirements. Tat model no longer holds. In today’s interconnected systems, clocking and timing architecture are now critical architectural considerations. Several industry-wide trends have


elevated timing from a supporting function to a core system architecture discipline. Timing is becoming infrastructure, not just a component. Interconnect speeds have increased to a point where jitter budgets are measured in tens of femtoseconds. AI and HPC workloads demand precise synchronisation across physically distributed subsystems. And the shiſt toward heterogeneous architectures has made multi-domain clock management a significant design challenge in its own right. Together, these trends are redefining


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