Microprocessor 8086 Interrupts-1
Microprocessor 8086 Interrupts-1
Microprocessor 8086 Interrupts-1
Interrupt is the method of creating a temporary halt during program execution and allows peripheral devices to
access the microprocessor. The microprocessor responds to that interrupt with an ISR
I nterruptS erviceRoutine , which is a short program to instruct the microprocessor on how to handle the
interrupt.
The following image shows the types of interrupts we have in a 8086 microprocessor
Hardware Interrupts
Hardware interrupt is caused by any peripheral device by sending a signal through a specified pin to the
microprocessor.
The 8086 has two hardware interrupt pins, i.e. NMI and INTR. NMI is a non-maskable interrupt and INTR is a
maskable interrupt having lower priority. One more interrupt pin associated is INTA called interrupt
acknowledge.
NMI
It is a single non-maskable interrupt pin N M I having higher priority than the maskable interrupt request pin
I N T R and it is of type 2 interrupt.
Pushes the CS codesegment value and IP instructionpointer value of the return address on to the
stack.
INTR
The INTR is a maskable interrupt because the microprocessor will be interrupted only if interrupts are enabled
using set interrupt flag instruction. It should not be enabled using clear interrupt Flag instruction.
The INTR interrupt is activated by an I/O port. If the interrupt is enabled and NMI is disabled, then the
microprocessor first completes the current execution and sends 0 on INTA pin twice. The first 0 means
INTA informs the external device to get ready and during the second 0 the microprocessor receives the 8 bit,
say X, from the programmable interrupt controller.
Flag register value, CS value of the return address and IP value of the return address are pushed on to the
stack.
Software Interrupts
Some instructions are inserted at the desired position into the program to create interrupts. These interrupt
instructions can be used to test the working of various interrupt handlers. It includes
It is 2-byte instruction. First byte provides the op-code and the second byte provides the interrupt type number.
There are 256 interrupt types under this group.
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CS value of the return address and IP value of the return address are pushed on to the stack.
The starting address for type0 interrupt is 000000H, for type1 interrupt is 00004H similarly for type2 is 00008H
and so on. The first five pointers are dedicated interrupt pointers. i.e.
The interrupts from Type 5 to Type 31 are reserved for other advanced microprocessors, and interrupts from 32
to Type 255 are available for hardware and software interrupts.
It is a 1-byte instruction having op-code is CCH. These instructions are inserted into the program so that when
the processor reaches there, then it stops the normal execution of program and follows the break-point
procedure.
CS value of the return address and IP value of the return address are pushed on to the stack.
It is a 1-byte instruction and their mnemonic INTO. The op-code for this instruction is CEH. As the name
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suggests it is a conditional interrupt instruction, i.e. it is active only when the overflow flag is set to 1 and branches
to the interrupt handler whose interrupt type number is 4. If the overflow flag is reset then, the execution
continues to the next instruction.
CS value of the return address and IP value of the return address are pushed on to the stack.
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