the present invention refers to a global clock system for clusters or networks of computers implemented entirely in hardware . the system uses a specifically designed hierarchical network to distribute clock pulses that are used to increment time counters in the cluster nodes . in addition , this network enables any node of the cluster to send a reset signal to the other nodes so that all local time counters are initialized simultaneously and remain automatically synchronized afterwards . in this way , each processor in the cluster is able to obtain the value of the global clock whenever accessing its own local time counter . the reset signal is the only function that is implemented in software .