The most common use of a timer peripheral is to trigger a specific action after a certain amount of time or clock cycles. Timer peripherals can be used to enhance your microcontroller (MCU) design in several ways:
Implementing timer functionality as a hardware peripheral ensures accuracy and reduces load on the CPU: although timing and counting is possible with software, this often causes inaccuracies due to latency and consumes valuable CPU instruction cycles.
A timer peripheral can also be used to generate waveforms, such as Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) signals: this enables control over various output functions and is recommended for applications like controlling servo position or the brightness of an LED.
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