Pausing hw timer in high state? [SOLVED]

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello!

I'm working on a 8-bit computer and I'm evaluating the feasibility of using an AVR microcontroller (Atmega1284P to be exact) for generating the clock signal for the CPU.

I need to generate a 1 Mhz clock signal using the AVR timer hardware and I need to be able to pause and resume the clock. It is critical that the clock is always paused in high state.

Is this possible to do? Can I read back the output state and stop/resume the timer when the signal is high?

I can work out the details myself, but it would be nice to know about the general feasibility of this idea so that I don't hit a dead-end after spending a lot of time on this :slight_smile:

2

The same could be achieved with a simple nand gate, driving a ceramic resonator (with just a couple of capacitors and resistors). Using an arduino for this just seems overkill.

3

Sure, but the AVR has other functions planned. It's going to be sharing the address and data busses with the main CPU and acting as a co-processor.

4

Ok, data sheet has the answer: yes, I can read back the pin value (even when the pin is in output mode) from PINx registers and pause the timer by setting timer's prescaler to 0.