
2002 Microchip Technology Inc.
Preliminary
DS30485A-page 203
PIC18FXX39
20.2
Watchdog Timer (WDT)
The Watchdog Timer is a free running on-chip RC
oscillator, which does not require any external compo-
nents. This RC oscillator is separate from the RC
oscillator of the OSC1/CLKI pin. That means that the
WDT will run, even if the clock on the OSC1/CLKI and
OSC2/CLKO/RA6 pins of the device has been stopped,
for example, by execution of a SLEEP instruction.
During normal operation, a WDT time-out generates a
device RESET (Watchdog Timer Reset). If the device is
in SLEEP mode, a WDT time-out causes the device to
wake-up and continue with normal operation (Watch-
dog Timer Wake-up). The TO bit in the RCON register
will be cleared upon a WDT time-out.
The Watchdog Timer is enabled/disabled by a device
configuration bit. If the WDT is enabled, software exe-
cution may not disable this function. When the WDTEN
configuration bit is cleared, the SWDTEN bit enables/
disables the operation of the WDT.
The WDT time-out period values may be found in the
ter
D031. Values for the WDT postscaler may be
assigned using the configuration bits.
20.2.1
CONTROL REGISTER
readable and writable register, which contains a control
bit that allows software to override the WDT enable
configuration bit, only when the configuration bit has
disabled the WDT.
REGISTER 20-13: WDTCON REGISTER
Note 1: The CLRWDT and SLEEP instructions
clear the WDT and the postscaler, if
assigned to the WDT and prevent it from
timing out and generating a device
RESET condition.
2: When a CLRWDT instruction is executed
and the postscaler is assigned to the
WDT, the postscaler count will be cleared,
but the postscaler assignment is not
changed.
U-0
R/W-0
—
—SWDTEN
bit 7
bit 0
bit 7-1
Unimplemented: Read as ’0’
bit 0
SWDTEN: Software Controlled Watchdog Timer Enable bit
1
= Watchdog Timer is on
0
= Watchdog Timer is turned off if the WDTEN configuration bit in the
configuration register = 0
Legend:
R = Readable bit
W = Writable bit
U = Unimplemented bit, read as ‘0’
- n = Value at POR