IRQ IRQ

IRQ - Definition and Overview

IRQ stands for interrupt request. IRQs are used by peripherals as a way to bring the processor into attention. In the early PC-architecture the chips 8259A and 8259B takes care of the requests and sends them to the processor in form of ordinary software interrupts.

In Pentium-class (and some 80486-class) computers the IRQs can be handled by the I/O APIC.


IRQs in the PC AT environment

  • IRQ0 = 8253/8254 interval timer
  • IRQ1 = keyboard
  • IRQ2 = reserved for the 8259B
  • IRQ3 = COM2 and COM4
  • IRQ4 = COM1 and COM3
  • IRQ5 = LPT
  • IRQ6 = Floppy drives
  • IRQ7 = LPT
  • IRQ8 = Real-time clock (RTC)
  • IRQ9 = Video card
  • IRQ10 - 12 = reserved
  • IRQ13 = Math coprocessor
  • IRQ14 = Primary IDE drives
  • IRQ15 = Secondary IDE drives

See also

External link

Copyright 2009 WordIQ.com - Privacy Policy  :: Terms of Use  :: Contact Us  :: About Us
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the this Wikipedia article.