Hardware and system clocks used by drivers, OS and hardware languages.
Clocks are key to controlling synchronous logic and are used by drivers, and OS software. As well, hardware languages, such as vhdl and verilog can make extensive use of clocks. CPU or system clocks are familiar to most developers, but a typical computer can contain many different clocks to control different hardware functions such as video, audio, RAM, buses, etc. Familiar current time functions are often derived from a hardware clock which produces interrupts allowing an OS to keep a running time count by recording the interrupt; sometimes called ticks or jiffies.
Related tags
- time - obtaining, formatting times and other uses.
- date - program issues dealing with dates.
- profiling - measuring execution time with a clock.
See also: PLL, Clock divider
