java.util.Timer equivalent in Ruby?

["Koper, Dies" <di...@fast.au.fujitsu.com>]

> that points out that (1) this work really should be done in the
> background (what happens when somebody tries to start a system with a
> gigantic number of instances in it ?) and (2) that error handling needs

Is there java.util.Timer-like functionality in Ruby?
I'd like to have a single additional thread, shared by all providers, where I can send tasks off to for either single execution (like this one), or schedule with "fixed delay" (i.e. retries every few minutes when I need to poll state - I have a few of those in the fgcp driver).
Although maybe this task with a gigantic number of instances probably doesn't qualify as "quickly completing", hogging other tasks...

Regards,
Dies Koper