OVERVIEW

The TrueSilicon PIT is a highly efficient hardware IP block designed generate periodic interrupts, trigger signals, or both, based on user defined timing intervals. It is commonly used in embedded systems and SoCs for scheduling periodic tasks, generating hardware triggers, and handling timeout events. The PIT consists of multiple independent timers, each capable of operating autonomously, making it suitable for applications that require several timing operations to run in parallel. 

The PIT supports the generation of interrupts, trigger outputs, or both simultaneously, giving flexibility to software and hardware subsystems. All interrupt outputs are maskable, allowing the processor to selectively enable or disable timer interrupts as needed. It also supports N independent interrupt outputs and M independent trigger outputs, enabling multiple events to be generated independently for different timers or peripherals

The core can be configured to support 32, 40, or 64 independent counters, depending on system requirements. Each timer/counter can be programmed to operate either in up-count mode or down-count mode, allowing flexibility in implementing different timing schemes. Every timer has an independent timeout period, meaning each counter can run with a unique load value and expire at a different interval without affecting the others

The processor configures and controls the PIT through an APB interface, which provides access to timer registers such as load values, control settings, interrupt masks, and status registers. Through this interface, software can initialize timers, start or stop counters synchronously, and monitor timer events. The synchronous start/stop control ensures that timer operations begin or halt in a controlled and predictable manner. The fully synchronous RTL design ensures clean clock-domain operation, predictable timing behaviour, and straightforward static timing analysis (STA).

The architecture is optimized for power, performance, andarea (PPA),making it suitable for a wide range of technology nodes and applications

Figure 1 depicts the high-level architecture of the TrueSilicon PIT IP, including the APB interface,showing generation for trigger and interrupts and multipletimers