8051 TIMER

PROGRAMMING

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8051 Timers
● The 8051 has two timers/counters, they
can be used as
◦ Timers to generate a time delay
◦ Event counters to count events happening
outside the microcontroller
● Both Timer 0 and Timer 1 are 16 bits
wide
◦ Since 8051 has an 8-bit architecture, each 16-
bits timer is accessed as two separate
registers of low byte and high byte
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Timer 0 & 1 Registers

● Accessed as low byte and high byte

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TMOD Register
● Both timers 0 and 1 use the same register,
called TMOD (timer mode), to set the
various timer operation modes
◦ TMOD is a 8-bit register
• The lower 4 bits are for Timer 0
• The upper 4 bits are for Timer 1
• In each case, the lower 2 bits are used to set the timer
mode
• The upper 2 bits to specify the operation

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GATE
● Timers of 8051 do starting and stopping
by either software or hardware control
◦ In using software to start and stop the timer
where GATE=0
• The start and stop of the timer are controlled by
way of software by the TR (timer start) bits TR0
and TR1
• The SETB instruction starts 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

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TCON Register
● TCON (timer control) register is an 8-bit
register

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TCON Register (cont.)
● TCON register is a bit-addressable
register

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Case of GATE = 1
● The start and stop of the timer are done
externally through pins P3.2 and P3.3 for
timers 0 and 1, respectively
◦ Allows to start or stop the timer externally at
any time via a simple switch

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GATE (cont.)
● The hardware way of starting and
stopping the timer by an external source
is achieved by making GATE=1 in the
TMOD register

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Mode 1 Programming
● The following are the characteristics and
operations of mode1:
◦ It is a 16-bit timer
• It allows value of 0000 to FFFFH to be loaded into
the timer’s register TL and TH
◦ After TH and TL are loaded with a 16-bit
initial value, the timer must be started
• This is done by SETB TR0 for timer 0 and SETB TR1
for timer 1
◦ After being started, it starts to count up
• It counts up until it reaches its limit of FFFFH
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Mode 1 Programming (cont.)
• When it rolls over from FFFFH to 0000, it sets high
a flag bit called TF (timer flag)
• Each timer has its own timer flag:TF0 for timer 0, and TF1
for timer 1
• This timer flag can be monitored
• When this timer flag is raised, one option would be
to stop the timer with the instructions CLR TR0 or
CLR TR1, for timer 0 and timer 1, respectively
◦ In order to repeat the process
• TH and TL must be reloaded with the original value
• TF must be reloaded to 0

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Steps to Mode 1 Program
● Load the TMOD value register
◦ Indicating which timer (timer 0 or timer 1) is
to be used and which timer mode (1 or 2) is
selected
● Load registers TL and TH with initial
count value
● Start the timer
● Keep monitoring the timer flag (TF)
◦ With the JNB TFx,target instruction to see if
it is raised
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Steps to Mode 1 Program (cont.)
◦ Get out of the loop when TF becomes high
● Stop the timer
● Clear the TF flag for the next round
● Go back to Step 2 to load TH and TL
again

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If TH and TL are not reloaded. the program generates a
single pulse. 23
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Finding the Loaded Timer Values
● To calculate the values to be loaded into
the TL and TH registers:
◦ Assume XTAL = 11.0592 MHz
• Divide the desired time delay by 1.085 us
• Perform 65536 – n, where n is the decimal value we
got in Step1
• Convert the result of Step2 to hex, where yyxx is
the initial hex value to be loaded into the timer’s
register
• Set TL = xx and TH = yy

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CPL P1.5 ; Comp. P1.5 to get Hi, Lo

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CPL P2.3 ; Comp. P2.3 to get Hi, Lo
CLR TF1 ; Clear timer 1 flag
SJMP AGAIN ;Reload timer
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Mode 2 Programming
● The following are the characteristics and
operations of mode 2:
◦ It is an 8-bit timer
• It allows only values of 00 to FFH to be loaded into
the timer’s register TH
◦ After TH is loaded with the 8-bit value, the
8051 gives a copy of it to TL
• Then the timer must be started
• This is done by the instruction SETB TR0 for timer 0 and
SETB TR1 for timer 1

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Mode 2 Programming (cont.)
◦ After the timer is started, it starts to count
up by incrementing the TL register
• It counts up until it reaches its limit of FFH
• When it rolls over from FFH to 00, it sets high the
TF (timer flag)
◦ When TF is set to 1,TL is reloaded
automatically with the original value kept by
the TH register
◦ To repeat the process, we must simply clear
TF and let it go without any need by the
programmer to reload the original value
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Mode 2 Programming (cont.)
● Mode 2 can auto-reload, in contrast with
mode 1 in which the programmer has to
reload TH and TL

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Steps to Mode 2 Program
● Load the TMOD value register
◦ Indicating which timer (timer 0 or timer 1) is
to be used, and the timer mode (mode 2) is
selected
● Load the TH registers with the initial
count value
● Start timer
● Keep monitoring the timer flag (TF)
◦ With the JNB TFx,target instruction to see
whether it is raised
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Steps to Mode 2 Program (cont.)
◦ Get out of the loop when TF goes high
● Clear the TF flag
● Go back to Step 4
◦ Since mode 2 is auto-reload

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 (253)
The number 200 is
the timer count till
the TF is set to 1

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Counter Programming
● Timers can also be used as counters
◦ Counting events happening outside the 8051
◦ A pulse outside of the 8051 increments the
TH,TL registers
◦ TMOD and TH,TL registers are the same as
for the timer
• Programming the timer also applies to programming
it as a counter
• Except the source of the frequency
◦ The C/T bit in the TMOD registers decides
the source of the clock for the timer
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Counter Programming (cont.)

• When C/T = 1, the timer is used as a

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Timer Programming in Embedded C

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Timer Programming in Embedded C (2)

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Counter Programming in Embedded C

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For Gate Based That is hardware
timers/counters one needs to
first learn interrupts

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