The OCP Time Appliance Project reference design — 100% open-source, from FPGA to PCB, used by Meta and the hyperscale timing community.
Available now at store.timebeat.app — instant ordering, global shipping.
100%
Open source
PCIe x4
Interface
3 oscillators
Options
Meta
Validated by
The OCP-TAP Timecard is the reference implementation of the Open Compute Project Time Appliance Project. Every aspect — the FPGA gateware, the PCB layout, the oscillator interface and the linuxptp integration — is published as open-source and has been validated by Meta, Microsoft and the broader OCP community. It turns any x86_64 server into a PTP grandmaster and NTP stratum-1 source with hardware-grade precision and a modular oscillator design that supports OCXO, Rubidium Black and Rubidium Black+ variants.
What it does
FPGA gateware, PCB schematics and layout, firmware and driver — everything is published under permissive open-source licences. Audit the implementation, modify the design, or source from any OCP-aligned manufacturer.
Three oscillator options: OCXO (Rakon, 0.5 ppb stability), Rubidium Black (Microchip MAC SA-53, <300 ns / 24hr holdover) and Rubidium Black+ (Microchip MAC-SA55, <200 ns / 24hr holdover). The oscillator module swaps without changing the base card.
The OCP-TAP reference design is the timing card Meta uses across its global fleet. It's been validated at hyperscale by Meta, Microsoft, Google and the broader OCP community — the same design, running the same firmware, in production at the largest networks in the world.
Operating range -40°C to +85°C. Certified for deployment in environments where standard consumer electronics would fail — telecom cell sites, industrial edge, outdoor enclosures.
Where it lives
The Meta architecture: one OCP-TAP Timecard per server rack, distributing PTP across the data centre fabric. The same reference design used at the largest networks in the world.
Deploy as the primary reference time clock in a G.8275.1 timing chain. The industrial temperature range and rubidium holdover options make it suitable for cell-site and outdoor enclosure deployments.
100% open-source and auditable from FPGA to driver. No proprietary firmware, no mystery silicon, no vendor dependency. Meets the auditability requirements of defence procurement frameworks.
Specs
OCXO variant
Rubidium Black variant
Rubidium Black+ variant
Standards & compliance
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Further reading
Deep-dives from the TimeBeat engineering team on the protocols, profiles and architectures behind every hardware product we ship.
Pillar guide
What a grandmaster actually does, how to choose one, and what separates a grandmaster you can trust from one that quietly drifts.
Pillar guide
How precision timing works in 5G fronthaul networks — the time-error budget, G.8275.1 and what it takes to operate the timing fabric.
Cluster
Choosing between OCXO, double-OCXO and rubidium holdover oscillators — the drift numbers and the deployment scenarios where each is correct.
Library
Product sheets, engineering guides, TCO models and blogs relevant to this hardware.
What a PTP grandmaster clock actually does, how to choose one, and what separates a grandmaster you can trust from one that quietly drifts. Written by TimeBeat's engineering team for network architects deploying IEEE 1588 in production.
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Process safety, incident response and cybersecurity through precision timing.
For most of computing, millisecond-class clock synchronisation is fine. For a growing list of use cases — finance, broadcast, 5G, AI, distributed databases — it isn't. A field guide to recognising when your application has crossed the line and millisecond-grade time has become a liability.
Meta's published engineering blog has documented one of the most ambitious PTP deployments in the industry — replacing NTP across the entire fleet with hardware-timestamped IEEE 1588. What they built, why they built it, and what it tells the rest of the industry about where hyperscale timing is heading.
