Exploring computer interrupt handling: understanding external interrupts, exceptions and traps under the Intel x86 processor
rocessor interrupt handling is one of the must-have knowledge in computer architecture. Under Intel’s x86 processor, interrupts can be categorized as external interrupts, exceptions, and traps. External interrupts come from the hardware and occur randomly, while exceptions are the result of error conditions detected during the execution of instructions within the processor. Traps, on the other hand, are generated by the program and are usually triggered by instructions such as INT n, INTO, and so on. ...