They are designed to overcome the dangers or annoyances associated wit PC's locking up. PC's used in remote dial-up applications, used for controlling external devices or performing data acquisition can all benefit from a watchdog timer.
If the controlling software hangs or crashes, the watchdog timer will timeout and reboot the host machine, just like pressing the reset button. The application software must reset the card's counters every timeout period to prevent the watchdog timer from re-booting the computer. The reset commands are identical for each of the product variations.
| PCI Watchdog - Reset Pin | ISA Watchdog - Reset Pin |
| PCI ATX Watchdog | ISA ATX Watchdog |
B&B Electronics design, manufacture and distribute a complete range of watchdog timers, for both PCI and ISA busses.