Question

Walk through the basic steps for handling an interrupt

Answer 1

The basic steps for handling an interrupt in a computer system involve interrupt detection, acceptance, saving the current state, executing the service routine, restoring the state, and resuming execution of the interrupted process.

Step-by-step explanation:

Handling an interrupt in a computer system involves several basic steps that ensure the CPU can effectively process the interrupt while maintaining the current state of execution. Here is a general outline of these steps:

1. 1. Interrupt Detection: The CPU detects an interrupt signal, indicating that an event requiring its attention has occurred.
   2. Interrupt Acceptance: If the CPU is ready and the priority of the interrupt is high enough, it will acknowledge the interrupt and may temporarily suspend the current process.
   3. Save State: The CPU saves the state of the current process, including the program counter and other registers, so that it can resume execution after handling the interrupt.
   4. Service Routine Execution: The CPU jumps to the interrupt service routine (ISR), a special block of code designated to handle the specific interrupt.
   5. State Restoration: Once the interrupt has been serviced, the CPU restores the saved state of the interrupted process.
   6. Resume Execution: The CPU resumes execution of the process that was interrupted.

These steps help ensure that the system can handle interrupts smoothly and efficiently without losing important information about the process that was running at the time. They are critical for multitasking in modern operating systems.