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From: gordon@brl-tgr.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Csh confusion: #define HZ 100?
Message-ID: <6515@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 8-Dec-84 21:32:27 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6515
Posted: Sat Dec  8 21:32:27 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Dec-84 03:05:02 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 14

One of the reasons for having HZ defined in csh is the "time" command.
It's build into csh, and it doesn't call /bin/time.  Quantities of CPU time
are available in ticks of cpu time, not seconds, and HZ is needed as a
conversion factor.

There is no particular reason why the system clock has to run at the same
speed as the power line frequency.  Any reasonably stable clock of an
appropriate frequency would do, and a HZ value of 100 makes a lot of math
easier for the humans to deal with.


				Gordon Burditt
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