Chapter 28. Interrupts

You’re familiar with interruptions already; you get them every day — a request for something special, right now. You might possibly delay it by locking your door, but the sources rarely go away, and you’ll have to take care of it sooner or later.

A computer interrupt is the same thing: something out there wants immediate attention. This request appears as a hardware signal delivered to the CPU. Each interrupt has with it a priority, relating to how soon the system should take care of the situation. Some interrupts are more like completion signals: “The task you gave me is finished, and I’m waiting for something else to do. “ This case is not a high priority, since neglecting it for a while won’t hurt anything (except perhaps ...

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