Hi,
if you would want to measure the instant in time you do something() in software with a scope or logic analyser (by toggling a pin once) on a typical x86 PC (e.g. pci, serial, lpt available, ok maybe not THAT typical anymore ;) running linux, what kind of I/O would you choose? latency should be minimal, but without major hardware hacks (no soldering to CPU pins or similar please :)