10.5.1 Switching Prescaler Setting

When switching between prescaler settings, the system clock prescaler ensures that no glitch occurs in the system clock and that no intermediate frequency is higher than neither the clock frequency corresponding the previous setting, nor the clock frequency corresponding to the new setting.

The ripple counter that implements the prescaler runs at the frequency of the main clock, which may be faster than the CPU's clock frequency. Hence, it is not possible to determine the state of the prescaler - even if it were readable, and the exact time it takes to switch from one clock division to another cannot be exactly predicted.

From the time the CLKPSR.CLKPS values are written, it takes between T₁ + T₂ and T₁ + 2*T₂ before the new clock frequency is active. In this interval, two active clock edges are produced. Here, T₁ is the previous clock period, and T₂ is the period corresponding to the new prescaler setting.