Scribd
Upload
4 views

Interrupts notes

Uploaded by

talkhardik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
4 views

Interrupts notes

Uploaded by

talkhardik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Interrupts

Created @April 9, 2024 2:00 PM

Class Operating system

Reviewed Not started

An interrupt is an electronic signal sent by hardware to the CPU.

It is used to inform the CPU that something has occurred which requires attention.

Hardware → CPU

The interrupt register will store interrupt requests (IRQ) when they arrive,
Each interrupt is linked to a specific port or connector. Flags represent if that interrupt has occurred and NOT been dealt
with.

IRQ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Flag 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Short Cascaded
Timer Keyboard Serial port 2 Serial port 1 Parallel port 2 Floppy disk
description signals

→ When a key is pressed an interrupt is sent from the keyboard, down the bus, to the CPU.
A 1 is then set in IQE 1 to specify that the interrupt has occurred.

IRQ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Flag 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Short Cascaded
Timer Keyboard Serial port 2 Serial port 1 Parallel port 2 Floppy disk
description signals

Interrupts and the FDE

At the end of the FDE cycle the IR is checked.

If an interrupt has been set then the OS needs to be notified

The OS will then make a decision, based on priorities, what to do next.

If the currently running process has a higher priority, then the interrupt could be ignored until that process has
finished.

If multiple interrupts have occurred then the one with the highest priority will be dealt with next.

Interrupts 1
Interrupt handler

It is also known as a Interrupt service routine (ISR).

Interrupt handlers will:

Be set up by the OS.

The OS will register an IRQ as part of its initialisation with the correct ISR.

It will then be linked into the OS interrupt table so when that interrupt occurs, that code will be run.

It is important that handlers are short and efficient.

They are normally written in a low level language such as C or assembly. (so that they can run really quickly).

Interrupts 2
Interrupts 3

You might also like