Analog Watchdog (Awd) - STMicroelectronics STM8 Manual

Analog Watchdog (AWD)

The AWD is one additional feature that most microcontrollers in the market do not have. AWD is more
like a comparator but with the exception that we can set both the upper and lower limits of this
comparator as per our requirement unlike fixed levels in other micros. The region between the upper
and lower limits is called guarded zone. Beyond the boundaries of the guarded zone, the AWD unit
kicks off.
The AWD unit is very useful in situations where we need to monitor the output of a sensor for example
and take quick actions. For instance, consider a temperature controller. We would want the controller
to turn on a heater should temperature fall below some level and turn it off when temperature rises
to some high value without complex calculations and constant monitoring in our application firmware.
In other microcontrollers, we would have accomplished this simple task using conditional IF-ELSE
statements.