Mastering Linux Kernel Development

Software timers and delay functions

A software timer allows a function to be invoked on expiry of a time duration. There are two types of timers: dynamic timers used by the kernel and interval timers used by the user-space processes. Apart from software timers, there is another type of commonly used timing function called delay functions. Delay functions implement a precise loop, which is executed as per (usually as many times as the) delay function's argument.