[J3] SYSTEM_CLOCK

[John Reid]

Dear all,

Here is a draft interp. Comments, please.

John.
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NUMBER: F18/xxx
TITLE: SYSTEM_CLOCK argument kinds
KEYWORDS: SYSTEM_CLOCK
DEFECT TYPE: Erratum
STATUS: Under consideration

QUESTION:

Clause 16.9.186 SYSTEM_CLOCK ([COUNT, COUNT_RATE, COUNT_MAX]), para, 3 
states that the argument COUNT "is assigned a processor-dependent 
value based on the value of a processor clock, or -HUGE (COUNT) if 
there is no clock for the invoking image."

Was it intend to allow the image to support more than one clock?


ANSWER:

This intrinsic was introduced in Fortran 90 assuming that there was a 
basic system clock that was incremented by one for each clock tick 
until a maximum was reached after which it was reset to zero. All the
arguments were default integers which were adequate for the computers
of the time.  

In Fortran 2003, these arguments were allowed to be of any kind to 
accommodate systems with a clock rate that is too high to be 
represented in a default integer. Also, the argument COUNT_RATE was
permitted to be real to accommodate systems whose clock does not 
tick an integral number of times per second. The model was still of 
data being returned from a single clock. It was intended that on such 
a system all the integer arguments would be long. 

There was no significant change to this in Fortran 2008. It states 
that the argument COUNT "is assigned a processor-dependent 
value based on the value of the processor clock, or -HUGE (COUNT) if 
there is no clock."

The wording for COUNT in Fortran 2018 was quoted in the question. Note 
that "the processor clock" became "a processor clock". This was to 
accommodate each image having its own clock or some or all images 
sharing a clock. There is no mention in the introduction of a change. 
However, the wording does allow vendors to provide different clocks 
for different kinds.

Having two clocks accommodates old programs that use default integers 
and new programs that get more accurate timings by using long integers. 
It was never intended to mix the kinds of the integer argument or to
use short integers and edits are provided to specify this. 


EDITS to 18-007r1:

[420:5] 16.9.186 SYSTEM_CLOCK ([COUNT, COUNT_RATE, COUNT_MAX]), para 3,
     COUNT. At the end of the first sentence add "with a decimal 
     exponent range of at least eight" and add new sentence "If there
     are other integer arguments they shall all have the same kind."
          
[420:10] 16.9.186 SYSTEM_CLOCK ([COUNT, COUNT_RATE, COUNT_MAX]), para 3,
     COUNT_RATE. After the first sentence add "If it is integer, it 
     shall have a decimal exponent range of at least eight and if there
     are other integer arguments they shall all have the same kind."
     
[420:13] 16.9.186 SYSTEM_CLOCK ([COUNT, COUNT_RATE, COUNT_MAX]), para 3,
     COUNT_MAX. At the end of the first sentence add "with a decimal 
     exponent range of at least eight" and add new sentence "If there
     are other integer arguments they shall all have the same kind."
          
[420:16] 16.9.186 SYSTEM_CLOCK ([COUNT, COUNT_RATE, COUNT_MAX]), para 4.
     At the end of the paragraph add "If an image has more than one 
     clock, the clock is determined by the kind of the integer 
     arguments or is processor dependent if there are no integer 
     arguments. 
  

SUBMITTED BY: John Reid

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