A watchdog originally referred to a dog's job, but now has been used in additional contexts with the same implication of watching or safeguarding: Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The dog is a canine carnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for at least 14,000 years and perhaps for as long as 150,000 years based on recent evidence. ...
A watchdog is also an informal name given to consumer protection organisations or campaigners. Their aim is to highlight criminality and poor service provided by companies and public bodies. In the UK, there is a long-running BBC TV programme called Watchdog that fills such a role.
The phrase watchdog journalism is a more popular term that applies to the above statement. It applies to any media, although it is regularly applied to newspaper and TV journalists actively engaged in watchdog activities. This term is rapidly being expanded to encompass internet bloggers who are taking up the cause of watchdog.
The phrase Nuclear watchdog has become synonymous with the International Atomic Energy Agency and is usually referenced when discussing investigations of countries who have allegedly broken the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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Generally speaking, a watchdog timer is based on a counter that counts down from some initial value to zero.
The process of restarting the watchdog timer's counter is sometimes called "kicking the dog." The appropriate visual metaphor is that of a man being attacked by a vicious dog.
To prevent this, many watchdog implementations require that a complex sequence of two or more consecutive writes be used to restart or reload the watchdog timer.
A watchdog timer is a simple countdown timer which is used to reset a microprocessor after a specific interval of time.
By moving the watchdog timer inside the microcontroller, the number of devices in the system is reduced, increasing the overall system reliability.
For an effective design, the number of watchdog restarts should be kept to a minimum, and some consideration should be given to the likelihood of incorrectly executing a restart.
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