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Counter/Timer Block

The counter/timer block is essentially a counter that counts internal clock pulses or external events and which interrupts the processor on a certain count value.

An automatic re-load register accommodates poor interrupt latency, so that the processor does not need to re-load the counter before the next event.

Timer (illustrated in the RTL) : counts pre-scaled system clock, but a counter has external inputs as shown on the schematic (e.g. car rev counter).

Four to eight, versatile, configurable counter/timers generally provided in one block.

All registers also configured as bus slave read/write resources for programmed I/O.

In this example, the interrupt is cleared by host programmed I/O (during host_op).


30: (C) 2008-11, DJ Greaves, University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory.