Timers and delays

This chapter introduces the possibility of co-ordinate time of the microcontrollers - timers and delays. These are helpful in applications which require time measuring, make breaks or accurately steer processes. All timers and delays are similar by their nature yet are clearly distinguishable at the same time. The timers are physical modules of microcontroller which are functioning independently from the processor of the microcontroller, delays are paragraphs of software program which are specifically designed to use working time of a processor. From the aspect of similarity both work by counting the firing strokes of the microcontroller.

Both methods have their pros and cons; which are covered in more detail in corresponding exercises. Out of correctness should be said, in the beginning the timers were separate integrated circuits and not as a part of a microcontroller. Separate timer chips exist also today, because in some applications the microcontrollers are not needed and some timers are more efficient than those integrated into the microcontroller.

Timers have evolved from being simple time counting devices to complex systems for receiving and generating signals. They modulate and demodulate signals and they are capable of multiplying and dividing (taktsignaal?). There are also special time-to-digital converters (TDC), which can register time in picoseconds. At this moment we are concentrated on more simple timers.