A watchdog timer is a hardware or software component in computational architecture that monitors the behavior of a system or a program. Its function is to detect when the system or program has become unresponsive or has crashed, and to reset the system or restart the program to prevent the system from malfunctioning or being damaged.
The watchdog timer is typically programmed to count a certain period of time and, if no response or acknowledgment is received within that time, an action is triggered. This action can be a reset of the system, an alarm, or a message to an external monitoring system.
Watchdog timers are commonly used in safety-critical systems, embedded systems, and industrial automation, where the failure of a system can result in significant financial or human loss.
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