Types of Interrupts
1. Software Interrupt
A sort of interrupt that is produced by the software is a software interrupt, sometimes referred to as a trap or a system call. It is used to ask the operating system or other system software to perform a certain service or activity. A program normally creates a software interrupt by utilizing a particular instruction, such as INT in x86 assembly language or a system call in a high-level programming language. When the processor comes across this instruction, it will store the program’s current state and transfer control to a specific location in memory where the system software or operating system can handle the request. Allocating memory, reading from or writing to a file, starting or stopping a process, and sending or receiving data from a network are a few services that can be requested using a software interrupt. In order to deliver services to user-space applications, system software like device drivers, libraries, and operating systems also employs software interrupts.
2. Hardware Interrupt
An external device, such as a keyboard or mouse, will signal the CPU with a hardware interrupt when it needs the processor’s attention. An interrupt controller is a piece of specialized hardware that produces these interruptions by receiving signals from the devices and sending them to the processor. When a hardware interrupt occurs, the processor saves the program’s current state and moves control to an area of memory known as an interrupt vector so that the proper interrupt handler can be run there. A short piece of code called an interrupt handler is created to support the particular device that caused the interrupt.Input/output processes such as receiving data from a keyboard, transferring data to a printer, or interacting with a network are all handled via hardware interrupts. They increase the system’s overall efficiency by enabling the processor to carry out other tasks while it waits for input or output operations to finish.
3. Maskable Interrupts
Interrupts that can be temporarily disabled or “masked” by the processor are known as maskable interrupts.
4. Non-maskable Interrupts
These must be handled right away because the processor cannot ignore them or mask them.
5. Inter-processor Interrupts
In a multiprocessor system, interprocessor interruptions are used to facilitate communication between different processors.
6. Inter-System Interrupts
Inter-system interrupts: These are used to alert other systems to an incident that needs their attention.
7. Exception
Similar to interrupts, exceptions are created by the processor when particular criteria are met, such as division by zero, an invalid command, etc.
What is Interrupt Latency?
Interrupt latency is a measure of the time it takes for a computer system to respond to an external event, such as a hardware interrupt or software exception. This metric is important in determining the performance and responsiveness of a system and is a key consideration in the design and optimization of real-time and embedded systems. In this article, we will discuss the concept of interrupt latency, its importance, and some of the factors that can affect interrupt latency.
The article focuses on discussing Interrupt latency in detail. The following topics will be discussed here:
- What is Interrupt?
- What is Interrupt Latency?
- Cause of Interrupt Latency
- Arm Cortex-M Interrupt Latency
- Measuring Interrupt Latency
- Conclusion
Let’s start discussing each of these topics in detail.
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