diff --git a/cpu/samd21/Makefile.include b/cpu/samd21/Makefile.include
index 78ef97db95..96226ee5d4 100644
--- a/cpu/samd21/Makefile.include
+++ b/cpu/samd21/Makefile.include
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ export UNDEF += $(BINDIR)cpu/syscalls.o
 export UNDEF += $(BINDIR)cpu/startup.o
 
 # export the peripheral drivers to be linked into the final binary
-export USEMODULE += periph
+export USEMODULE += periph hwtimer_compat
 
 # CPU depends on the cortex-m common module, so include it
 include $(CORTEX_COMMON)Makefile.include
diff --git a/sys/Makefile b/sys/Makefile
index 4d2bc7642c..515cc13148 100644
--- a/sys/Makefile
+++ b/sys/Makefile
@@ -137,6 +137,9 @@ endif
 ifneq (,$(filter ng_udp,$(USEMODULE)))
     DIRS += net/transport_layer/ng_udp
 endif
+ifneq (,$(filter hwtimer_compat,$(USEMODULE)))
+    DIRS += compat/hwtimer
+endif
 
 DIRS += $(dir $(wildcard $(addsuffix /Makefile, ${USEMODULE})))
 
diff --git a/sys/compat/Makefile b/sys/compat/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..48422e909a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sys/compat/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+include $(RIOTBASE)/Makefile.base
diff --git a/sys/compat/hwtimer/Makefile b/sys/compat/hwtimer/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..316bf04d47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sys/compat/hwtimer/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+MODULE = hwtimer_compat
+
+include $(RIOTBASE)/Makefile.base
diff --git a/cpu/samd21/hwtimer_arch.c b/sys/compat/hwtimer/hwtimer_arch.c
similarity index 78%
rename from cpu/samd21/hwtimer_arch.c
rename to sys/compat/hwtimer/hwtimer_arch.c
index 28825e51e3..0325e33026 100644
--- a/cpu/samd21/hwtimer_arch.c
+++ b/sys/compat/hwtimer/hwtimer_arch.c
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) 2014 Freie Universität Berlin
+ * Copyright (C) 2015 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ *               2014 Freie Universität Berlin
+ *
  *
  * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
  * General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
@@ -7,15 +9,16 @@
  */
 
 /**
- * @ingroup     cpu_samd21
+ * @ingroup     sys_compat
  * @{
  *
  * @file        hwtimer_arch.c
- * @brief       Implementation of the kernels hwtimer interface
+ * @brief       Implementation of the kernels hwtimer interface over periph timers
  *
- * The hardware timer implementation uses the Cortex build-in system timer as back-end.
+ * This hwtimer implementation wraps one periph timer
  *
  * @author      Thomas Eichinger <thomas.eichinger@fu-berlin.de>
+ * @author      Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
  *
  * @}
  */