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    Embedded Systems - Timer - Counter

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    Embedded Systems - Timer - Counter

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    Embedded Systems - Timer/Counter

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    A timer is a specialized type of clock which is used to measure time intervals. A timer that counts from
    zero upwards for measuring time elapsed is often called a stopwatch. It is a device that counts down
    from a specified time interval and used to generate a time delay, for example, an hourglass is a timer.

    A counter is a device that stores (and sometimes displays) the number of times a particular event or
    process occurred, with respect to a clock signal. It is used to count the events happening outside the
    microcontroller. In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using register-type circuits
    such as a flip-flop.

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    Difference between a Timer and a Counter


    The points that differentiate a timer from a counter are as follows −
    Timer Counter

    The register incremented for every The register is incremented considering 1 to 0 transition at
    machine cycle. its corresponding to an external input pin (T0, T1).

    Maximum count rate is 1/12 of the


    Maximum count rate is 1/24 of the oscillator frequency.
    oscillator frequency.

    A timer uses the frequency of the


    A counter uses an external signal to count pulses.
    internal clock, and generates delay.

    Timers of 8051 and their Associated Registers


    The 8051 has two timers, Timer 0 and Timer 1. They can be used as timers or as event counters. Both
    Timer 0 and Timer 1 are 16-bit wide. Since the 8051 follows an 8-bit architecture, each 16 bit is
    accessed as two separate registers of low-byte and high-byte.

    Timer 0 Register
    The 16-bit register of Timer 0 is accessed as low- and high-byte. The low-byte register is called TL0
    (Timer 0 low byte) and the high-byte register is called TH0 (Timer 0 high byte). These registers can be
    accessed like any other register. For example, the instruction MOV TL0, #4H moves the value into the
    low-byte of Timer #0.

    Timer 1 Register
    The 16-bit register of Timer 1 is accessed as low- and high-byte. The low-byte register is called TL1
    (Timer 1 low byte) and the high-byte register is called TH1 (Timer 1 high byte). These registers can be
    accessed like any other register. For example, the instruction MOV TL1, #4H moves the value into the
    low-byte of Timer 1.
    TMOD (Timer Mode) Register
    Both Timer 0 and Timer 1 use the same register to set the various timer operation modes. It is an 8-bit
    register in which the lower 4 bits are set aside for Timer 0 and the upper four bits for Timers. In each
    case, the lower 2 bits are used to set the timer mode in advance and the upper 2 bits are used to specify
    the location.

    Gate − When set, the timer only runs while INT(0,1) is high.

    C/T − Counter/Timer select bit.

    M1 − Mode bit 1.

    M0 − Mode bit 0.

    GATE

    Every timer has a means of starting and stopping. Some timers do this by software, some by hardware,
    and some have both software and hardware controls. 8051 timers have both software and hardware
    controls. The start and stop of a timer is controlled by software using the instruction SETB TR1 and CLR
    TR1 for timer 1, and SETB TR0 and CLR TR0 for timer 0.

    The SETB instruction is used to start it and it is stopped by the CLR instruction. These instructions start
    and stop the timers as long as GATE = 0 in the TMOD register. Timers can be started and stopped by an
    external source by making GATE = 1 in the TMOD register.

    C/T (CLOCK / TIMER)


    This bit in the TMOD register is used to decide whether a timer is used as a delay generator or an event
    manager. If C/T = 0, it is used as a timer for timer delay generation. The clock source to create the time
    delay is the crystal frequency of the 8051. If C/T = 0, the crystal frequency attached to the 8051 also
    decides the speed at which the 8051 timer ticks at a regular interval.

    Timer frequency is always 1/12th of the frequency of the crystal attached to the 8051. Although various
    8051 based systems have an XTAL frequency of 10 MHz to 40 MHz, we normally work with the XTAL
    frequency of 11.0592 MHz. It is because the baud rate for serial communication of the 8051.XTAL =
    11.0592 allows the 8051 system to communicate with the PC with no errors.

    M1 / M2
    M1 M2 Mode

    0 0 13-bit timer mode.

    0 1 16-bit timer mode.

    1 0 8-bit auto reload mode.

    1 1 Spilt mode.

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    Different Modes of Timers

    Mode 0 (13-Bit Timer Mode)


    Both Timer 1 and Timer 0 in Mode 0 operate as 8-bit counters (with a divide-by-32 prescaler). Timer
    register is configured as a 13-bit register consisting of all the 8 bits of TH1 and the lower 5 bits of TL1.
    The upper 3 bits of TL1 are indeterminate and should be ignored. Setting the run flag (TR1) does not
    clear the register. The timer interrupt flag TF1 is set when the count rolls over from all 1s to all 0s. Mode
    0 operation is the same for Timer 0 as it is for Timer 1.

    Mode 1 (16-Bit Timer Mode)

    Timer mode "1" is a 16-bit timer and is a commonly used mode. It functions in the same way as 13-bit
    mode except that all 16 bits are used. TLx is incremented starting from 0 to a maximum 255. Once the
    value 255 is reached, TLx resets to 0 and then THx is incremented by 1. As being a full 16-bit timer, the
    timer may contain up to 65536 distinct values and it will overflow back to 0 after 65,536 machine
    cycles.
    Mode 2 (8 Bit Auto Reload)
    Both the timer registers are configured as 8-bit counters (TL1 and TL0) with automatic reload. Overflow
    from TL1 (TL0) sets TF1 (TF0) and also reloads TL1 (TL0) with the contents of Th1 (TH0), which is
    preset by software. The reload leaves TH1 (TH0) unchanged.

    The benefit of auto-reload mode is that you can have the timer to always contain a value from 200 to
    255. If you use mode 0 or 1, you would have to check in the code to see the overflow and, in that case,
    reset the timer to 200. In this case, precious instructions check the value and/or get reloaded. In mode
    2, the microcontroller takes care of this. Once you have configured a timer in mode 2, you don't have to
    worry about checking to see if the timer has overflowed, nor do you have to worry about resetting the
    value because the microcontroller hardware will do it all for you. The auto-reload mode is used for
    establishing a common baud rate.

    Mode 3 (Split Timer Mode)


    Timer mode "3" is known as split-timer mode. When Timer 0 is placed in mode 3, it becomes two
    separate 8-bit timers. Timer 0 is TL0 and Timer 1 is TH0. Both the timers count from 0 to 255 and in
    case of overflow, reset back to 0. All the bits that are of Timer 1 will now be tied to TH0.

    When Timer 0 is in split mode, the real Timer 1 (i.e. TH1 and TL1) can be set in modes 0, 1 or 2, but it
    cannot be started/stopped as the bits that do that are now linked to TH0. The real timer 1 will be
    incremented with every machine cycle.

    Initializing a Timer
    Decide the timer mode. Consider a 16-bit timer that runs continuously, and is independent of any
    external pins.

    Initialize the TMOD SFR. Use the lowest 4 bits of TMOD and consider Timer 0. Keep the two bits, GATE 0
    and C/T 0, as 0, since we want the timer to be independent of the external pins. As 16-bit mode is timer
    mode 1, clear T0M1 and set T0M0. Effectively, the only bit to turn on is bit 0 of TMOD. Now execute the
    following instruction −

    MOV TMOD,#01h

    Now, Timer 0 is in 16-bit timer mode, but the timer is not running. To start the timer in running mode, set
    the TR0 bit by executing the following instruction −

    SETB TR0

    Now, Timer 0 will immediately start counting, being incremented once every machine cycle.
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    Reading a Timer
    A 16-bit timer can be read in two ways. Either read the actual value of the timer as a 16-bit number, or
    you detect when the timer has overflowed.

    Detecting Timer Overflow


    When a timer overflows from its highest value to 0, the microcontroller automatically sets the TFx bit in
    the TCON register. So instead of checking the exact value of the timer, the TFx bit can be checked. If
    TF0 is set, then Timer 0 has overflowed; if TF1 is set, then Timer 1 has overflowed.

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