The timer is nothing but a simple binary counter that can be configured to count clock pulses(Internal/External). Once it reaches the Max value, it will reset to zero setting up an Overflow flag and generates the interrupt if enabled.

Do microcontrollers have timers?

The timer and counter functions in the microcontroller simply count in sync with the microcontroller clock. However, the counter can only count up to either 256 (8-bit counter), or 65535 (16-bit counter). ... Mainly, timers have a register for control, and a register that holds the count number.

What are the types of timers in microcontroller?

The 8051 has two timers, Timer 0 and Timer 1. They can be used as timers or as event counters. Both Timer 0 and Timer 1 are 16-bit wide. Since the 8051 follows an 8-bit architecture, each 16 bit is accessed as two separate registers of low-byte and high-byte.