Interval Timer Question

Hi All,

I'm using Quartus II v10.0 and Nios II v10.0. I need to implement a simple timeout feature for my project. All I need is to be able to set some timeout period and then loop while doing some other things until the timer times out - polling. I don't want an interrupt (such as the alarm) just a way to check if the timer has run down to 0. Does the HAL API provide methods for accomplishing this? Or do I need to access the core's registers directly to accomplish this?

If anyone knows a simple way to do this I would be greatful.