This simple function (i gues)  is for measuring page generation time in microseconds, using earlier mentioned register_shutdown_function... 
Here is an example:
<?php
set_time_limit(0);
function check_time($time_str, $end = false){
    global $start; list($msec, $sec) = explode(' ', $time_str);
    $result = bcadd($msec, $sec, 10);
    if(!$end){
        $start = $result;
        register_shutdown_function('check_time', microtime(), 'true'); }elseif($end){
        $end = $result;
        echo '<br />Page was generated in '.bcsub($end, $start, 10).' seconds...<br />';
    }
}
check_time(microtime()); $fd = fopen('users.txt', 'r');
while(!feof($fd)){
    $buffer .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);
?>
As you see may be its large, but you dont have to call "check_time" function twice, in the start and at the end of the script, as many users usually do...