{{primary sources, date=July 2012
Pendulum Instruments is a line of
scientific instrument
A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research.
History
Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...
s for high-resolution
time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
and
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
measurements.
Pendulum was originally created in the 1960s as the
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
time and frequency competence center. After 30 years of existence within Philips, it was spun off from 1998 but continued to sell Philips-branded instruments for another two years before starting to sell instruments under its own brand name.
A
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n subsidiary was established in 2004, and in 2005, XL Microwave (an
Oakland, CA
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
-based manufacturer of microwave frequency counters and similar equipment) was acquired and transformed into the US branch ''Pendulum Instruments, Inc''.
In 2008, Pendulum became part of the Orolia Group, and in 2009 its operations were combined with another Orolia company, Spectracom to form one global time & frequency systems & services organization operating under the Spectracom umbrella.Euronext news, "Orolia Advances Growth Strategy" http://www.euronext.com/trader/companynews/companyNews-4380-EN-FR0010501015.html?selectedMep=1&docid=773572 Pendulum Instruments continues to be a leading brand of test & measurement instruments and are also sold under the Fluke brand name in most parts of the world, and total sales in the specific field are second only to
Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packar ...
.
Pendulum's range of products:
*
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
rubidium
Rubidium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Rb and atomic number 37. It is a very soft, whitish-grey solid in the alkali metal group, similar to potassium and caesium. Rubidium is the first alkali metal in the group to have ...
-based
frequency counter
A frequency counter is an electronics, electronic measuring instrument, instrument, or Electronic component, component of one, that is used for measuring frequency. Frequency counters usually measure the number of cycles of oscillation or pulses p ...
s and timers
* Frequency references (OCXO and rubidium based, stand-alone as well as
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
disciplined)
*Reference frequency distribution systems (
coaxial
In geometry, coaxial means that several three-dimensional linear or planar forms share a common axis. The two-dimensional analog is ''concentric''.
Common examples:
A coaxial cable has a wire conductor in the centre (D), a circumferential ou ...
and
optical
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...
)
*Instruments for measuring the stability of
synchronization
Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the Conductor (music), conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are sa ...