A logical clock is a mechanism for capturing chronological and causal relationships in a distributed system.
Logical clock algorithms of note are:
- Lamport timestamps, which are monotonically increasing software counters.
- Vector clocks, that allow for total ordering of events in a distributed system.
- Version vectors, order replicas, according to updates, in an optimistic replicated system.
- Matrix clocks, an extension of vector clocks that also contains information about other processes' views of the system.
Famous quotes containing the words logical and/or clock:
“It was at that moment, just after Krug had fallen through the bottom of a confused dream and sat up on the straw with a gasp—and just before his reality, his remembered hideous misfortune could pounce upon him—it was then that I felt a pang of pity for Adam and slid towards him along an inclined beam of pale light—causing instantaneous madness, but at least saving him from the senseless agony of his logical fate.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Whoever considers morality the main objective of human existence, seems to me like a person who defines the purpose of a clock as not going wrong. The first objective for a clock, is, however, that it does run; not going wrong is an additional regulative function. If not a watch’s greatest accomplishment were not going wrong, unwound watches might be the best.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)