In a method, system and apparatus for measuring an idle value of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) in an embedded system, the CPU increments a hardware counter in accordance with clock signals. The CPU also increments an idle counter during a predetermined period of time in accordance with the clock signals while an idle task is running. The CPU calculates the idle value as a ratio of total increments of the idle counter to total increments of the hardware counter after the predetermined period of time has expired.