One solution consists of using the on-chip hardware timer. Since a typical timer is only 16 or 24 bits wide, this solution implies that the system clock be slow enough to cope with long delay. For example, a 24-bit timer running on a 1 MHz system clock can only lead to a delay of a few tens of seconds. This may be not enough in many applications. In addition, this solution impacts overall system performance since it imposes a processing speed.