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Feb 20, 2023·edited Feb 20, 2023Author

Of course, the marketplace of clock sources is a bit of a rabbit hole on its own.

There are temperature-compensated or temperature-controlled crystals (TXCO and OCXO), the latter reaching parts-per-billion accuracy (but also costing a lot). There are ceramic resonators, a bit cheaper than crystals and a bit less bad than RC circuits, making them poor for timekeeping, but OK for applications such as USB or Ethernet. There are integrated modules that might contain an amplifier and a programmable divider / PLL - maybe a bit less relevant now that the same functionality is commonly available on MCU and CPU dies. And there are micromachined MEMS devices, which generally don't perform any better or worse than quartz, but might be available in slightly smaller packaging.

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