Dear David & Sandeep,

Normally I use the following method,

1> Use a timer ISR to generate a delay. (for e.g. a timer-0 ISR every 10mS, increase a counter; when counter reaches 100, it is 1 second)

This is the method I normally use for most of the delays.(Like key scanning, timeouts for some methods, etc...; which in deed needs different timings)
Only thing needed is to calculate TH & TL accurately


Another method I once used was
2> I was using DS1307 RTC IC in an application. I configured it to generate 1Hz square wave on its SQW/OUT pin which was connected to /INT1 pin of my MCU (p89lpc936). Every external-1 ISR (edge triggered) is 1 Sec count.

Regards,
Mahesh