John Eidson received a BS and MS in 1958 and 1960 from Michigan State University and the Ph.D. in 1964 from Stanford University, all in electrical engineering. Since 1970 his research has focused on instrument system design and architecture. This work was conducted in the central research laboratories of Varian Associates (1967-72), Hewlett-Packard (1972-1999) and most recently Agilent Technologies. Since 1990 his research has focused on the problems of distributed measurement and control with particular emphasis on the use of synchronized clocks and explicit representation of system timing as...