Programming Considerations
On x86 PCs, many video card BIOS and system BIOS will reprogram the second counter for their own use. Reprogramming typically happens during video mode changes, when the video BIOS may be executed, and during system management mode and power saving state changes, when the system BIOS may be executed. This prevents any serious alternative uses of the timer's second counter on many x86 systems.
The timer that is used by the system on x86 PCs is Channel 0, and its clock ticks at a theoretical value of 1193181.8181... Hz, i.e. one third of the NTSC color subcarrier frequency, which comes from dividing the system clock (14.31818 MHz) by 12. This is a holdover of the very first CGA PCs – they derived all necessary frequencies from a single quartz crystal, and to make TV output possible, this quartz had to run at a multiple of the NTSC color subcarrier frequency.
As stated above, Channel 0 is implemented as a counter. Typically, the initial value of the counter is set by sending bytes to the Control, then Data I/O Port registers (the value 36h sent to port 43h, then the low byte to port 40h, and port 40h again for the high byte). The counter counts down to zero, then sends a hardware interrupt (IRQ 0, INT 8) to the CPU. The counter then resets to its initial value and begins to count down again. The fastest possible interrupt frequency is a little over a half of a megahertz. The slowest possible frequency, which is also the one normally used by computers running MS-DOS or compatible operating systems, is about 18.2 Hz. Under these real mode operating systems, the BIOS accumulates the number of INT 8 calls that it receives in real mode address 0040:006c, which can be read by a program.
As a timer counts down, its value can also be read directly by reading its I/O port twice, first for the low byte, and then for the high byte. However, in free-running counter applications such as in the x86 PC, it is necessary to first write a latch command for the desired channel to the control register, so that both bytes read will belong to one and the same value.
Read more about this topic: Intel 8253
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