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ATTIMER(4)		     Kernel Interfaces Manual		      ATTIMER(4)

NAME
     attimer -- i8254 Programmable Interval Timer (AT Timer) driver

SYNOPSIS
     This driver is a mandatory part of x86 kernels.

     The following tunables are settable from the loader(8):

     hint.attimer.X.clock
     controls support for the event timer functionality.  Setting this value to
     0 disables it.  The default value is 1.

     hint.attimer.X.timecounter
     controls support for the time counter functionality.  Setting this value to
     0 disables it.  The default value is 1.

     hw.i8254.freq
     allows overriding the default counter frequency.  The same value is also
     available at run-time via the machdep.i8254_freq sysctl.

DESCRIPTION
     This  driver  uses i8254 Programmable Interval Timer (AT Timer) hardware to
     supply the kernel with one timecounter and one event timer, and to generate
     sound tones for the system speaker.  This hardware includes three channels.
     Each channel includes a 16 bit counter which decreases with a known,  plat-
     form-dependent frequency.	Counters can operate in several different modes,
     including	periodic and one-shot.	The output of each channel has platform-
     defined wiring: one channel is wired to the interrupt controller and may be
     used as event timer, one channel is wired to the speaker and used to gener-
     ate sound tones, and one timer is reserved for platform purposes.

     The attimer driver uses a single hardware	channel  to  provide  both  time
     counter  and event timer functionality.  To make this possible, the respec-
     tive counter must be running in periodic mode.  As a result,  the	one-shot
     event  timer mode is supported only when time counter functionality is dis-
     abled.

     The event timer provided by the driver is irrelevant to CPU power states.

SEE ALSO
     apic(4), atrtc(4), eventtimers(4), hpet(4), timecounters(4)

FreeBSD 15.1			  May 26, 2014			      ATTIMER(4)

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