A method of checking for a stall condition in a processor is disclosed, the method including inserting an inline instruction sequence into a thread, the inline instruction sequence configured to read the result from a timing register during processing of a first instruction and store the result in a first general purpose register, wherein the timing register functions as a timer for the processor; and read the results from the timing register during processing of a second instruction and store the results in a second general purpose register, wherein the second instruction is the next consecutive instruction after the first instruction. The inline thread sequence may be inserted in sequence with the thread and further configured to compare the difference between the result in the first and second general purpose register to a programmable threshold.