Ch 3 · Interrupts · Theory
Topic 3 of 9 in System Software & the Toolchain — What Runs Your Programs — 2 lessons.
"Stop, Deal With This Now"
An interrupt is a signal to the CPU that something needs immediate attention — a key pressed, a disk finishing, a printer out of paper, a hardware error. Rather than constantly checking every device, the CPU can carry on working and *react* only when interrupted.
Modelling an Interrupt Queue
This mimics the CPU pausing its main work to service interrupts by priority, then resuming.