Time and date values 
Time and date values are represented as a number of UTC seconds since 12:00 a.m. Jan. 1, 1970. 
The os.time() command returns values in this format. Use os.date() to return values in month, 
day, year, hours, and minutes format, or to access the timestamp table. The only exception to this is 
the use of the ptpseconds recall attribute, which has the seconds in PTP format. 
Time and date values are represented as the number of seconds since some base. Representing 
time as a number of seconds is referred to as “standard time format.” The three time bases used for 
the Series 3700A are: 
•  UTC 12:00 am Jan 1, 1970. Some examples of UTC time are reading buffer seconds, adjustment 
dates, and the value returned by os.time(). 
•  Instrument on. References time to when the instrument was turned on. The value returned by 
os.clock() is referenced to the turn-on time. 
•  Event. Time referenced to an event, such as the first reading stored in a reading buffer. 
 
Using the TSP command reference 
The Test Script Processor (TSP
®
) command reference contains detailed descriptions of each of the 
TSP commands that you can use to control your instrument. Each command description is broken 
into subsections. The figure below shows an example of a command description. 
Figure 137: Example instrument command description 
 
The subsections contain information about the command. The subsections are: 
•  Command name and summary table 
•  Usage 
•  Details 
•  Example 
•  Also see 
The content of each of these subsections is described in the following topics.