What's a "long period"?
RTCs that connect using I2C or SPI will need to queue for access to
that particular serial bus, and then there are transfer costs.
The busses are frequently, but of course not always, idle. For I2C
at 100 KHz, RTC transfers might take a millisecond or so.
I'd be tempted to say those are all quick enough that the ops don't
need to be interruptible.
- Dave
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