Non-Maskable Interrupt

[pphaneuf]

I mentioned NMI's (non-maskable interrupt) today and was asked for clarification. I was more accurately referring to a priority interrupt. It has to be noted that during processing of an interrupt, interrupts are normally blocked, to avoid incredible confusion.

This includes the timer interrupt, commonly used for the management of multitasking features in modern operating systems. This is why when too much time is spent in interrupt processing, normal functioning is visibly disrupted (cannot move the mouse cursor, everything is frozen).

While this behaviour might be annoying on an more conventional interactive system, such as a workstation, in some realtime applications this can be a desired behaviour, as the interrupt processing often takes care of a critical functionality of the system (an example would be the audio decoding of an iPod).

Hoping that this clears things up, I shall go to sleep now.

Comments

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

How you ever managed to get laid beyond highschool shocks me daily.


Geek!


*wink*


:) Nancy

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

It's funny, 'cause I only gotten laid beyond highschool. In highschool, I wasn't just a geek, I was a nerd. But toward the end, I got better, I even went to my prom and even had fun!