Semiconductor & Computer Engineering
(→See also) |
|||
| Line 21: | Line 21: | ||
* [[Sleep]] | * [[Sleep]] | ||
* [[Counter]] | * [[Counter]] | ||
| + | * [[Date and time]] | ||
[[Category:Counters]] | [[Category:Counters]] | ||
Revision as of 02:52, 10 April 2014
A timer is a device that increments or decrements a counter at a fixed frequency. Computer timers are often used to check against some set value; when the counter's value matches that value some specific action is taken. Most systems typically have at least one hardware timer that's used to implement a larger set of software timers.
Overview
 |
This section is empty; you can help add the missing info by editing this page. |
Hardware timers
| |
This section is empty; you can help add the missing info by editing this page. |
Software timers
| |
This section is empty; you can help add the missing info by editing this page. |
Alternatives
| |
This section is empty; you can help add the missing info by editing this page. |
API support
- Main article: List of timer APIs
Timers play a crucial rule in many applications for a variety of jobs such as periodical checking of information. Many programming languages provide easy ways of scheduling timer tasks. Most operating systems also offer a way of setting up timer tasks. For example, on POSIX systems one could setup an alarm which would generate the SIGALRM signal after a specified number of seconds. Likewise, on Windows, the SetTimer Win32 API function can be used to call a callback function after a specific amount of time.