Wiktionary
n. 1 One who or that which synchronizes. 2 # (context automotive English) Part of a synchromesh manual transmission that allows the smooth engagement of gears. 3 # (context aerial warfare English) A device that permits an automatic weapon to fire between the blades of a revolving propeller. 4 # (context electronics English) A kind of arbiter. 5 # (context film editing English) A device for aligning multiple film strips in a replay or editing device. 6 # (context comptheory English) An algorithm that can be applied to a synchronous distributed algorithm to produce a version that operates in asynchronous networks.
WordNet
n. an instrument that indicates whether two periodic motions are synchronous (especially an instrument that enables a pilot to synchronize the propellers of a plane that has two or more engines) [syn: synchroscope, synchronoscope, synchroniser]
Wikipedia
The term synchronizer may refer to:
- In automobiles, a synchronizer is part of a synchromesh manual transmission that allows the smooth engagement of gears.
- In aerial warfare, a synchronizer is a device that permits an automatic weapon to fire between the blades of a revolving propeller.
- In electronics, an arbiter helps order signals in asynchronous circuits. There are also electronic digital circuits called synchronizers that attempt to perform arbitration in one clock cycle. Synchronizers, unlike arbiters, are prone to failure. (See metastability in electronics.)
- In electronics, whenever there is signal transfer between two systems operating at different frequencies or same frequency with different phases, synchronizer block is used as an interface so that signal from transmitter block is reliably interpreted by the receiver. The block usually uses metastable hardened flops offering single or double latency delays at the output. This block ensures that there is no metastability for a target MTBF i.e., Mean Time Between Failures
- In film editing, a synchronizer is a device for aligning multiple film strips in a replay or editing device.
- In computer science, a synchronizer is an algorithm that can be applied to a synchronous distributed algorithm to produce a version that operates in asynchronous networks.
In computer science, a synchronizer is an algorithm that can be used to run a synchronous algorithm on top of an asynchronous processor network, so enabling the asynchronous system to run as a synchronous network.
The concept was originally proposed in (Awerbuch, 1985) along with three synchronizer algorithms named alpha, beta and gamma which provided different tradeoffs in terms of time and message complexity. Essentially, they are a solution to the problem of asynchronous algorithms (which operate in a network with no global clock) being harder to design and often less efficient than the equivalent synchronous algorithms. By using a synchronizer, algorithm designers can deal with the simplified "ideal network" and then later mechanically produce a version that operates in more realistic asynchronous cases.
Usage examples of "synchronizer".
Thayer finished installing her hastily improvised controller synchronizer under floodlights.
Horton said to Thayer, who was standing at the synchronizer, her hands on the controls.
Cesium oscillators, hydrogen masers, satellites, and synchronizers opened an unlikely door to wonder - one which led him to relativity, radioactivity, and nuclear science.
The fleeting trace was perhaps the only telltale sign that the crashes were caused by a timing problem: a synchronizer stalled in a metastable condition for a few nanoseconds too long.
You may, just possibly, have heard of a pirate who called himself Black Bart. In many respects he was a military genius, and one of his contributions to the art of spatial warfare was the synchronizer.
Within the pods the synchronizers were carefully timing the hatching with military precision.
Cesium oscillators, hydrogen masers, satellites, and synchronizers opened an unlikely door to wonder - one which led him to relativity, radioactivity, and nuclear science.