Searching for an event function

Hi,

I have a Nios II Core and now I want to use the console from the NIOS II IDE to communicate with the hardware over the JTAG_UART. I want to type in the parameters of my system through the console. If the system is running and I want to change some parameters I just want to type them in through the console without restarting the system. For that reason I need a function that allows me to check for example everyl second if something was typed in or not. So my question is: "Is there a function from NIOS which offers me this oppertunity?"

Thanks in advance for the advice!