Why was an interrupt invented?

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
Many of the task of a program are relatively repeated mundane non urgent tasks. Occasionally you may want to attend to a particular occurrence immediately it happens, for this reason you interrupt the main program flow in order to attend to it in an immediate fashion without waiting until a routine finishes.,
There are also low and high priority interrupts in order to further select the urgency of the request.
Also, it may be an infrequent occurrence, so you do not waste time checking the event every time.
Max.
 

OBW0549

Joined Mar 2, 2015
3,566
Interrupts were created out of necessity: in many (most?) systems, there are events happening which require the immediate attention of the processor. Interrupts make this possible.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,706
There is nothing unusual about interrupts. There are hundreds of examples in your daily life where something takes precedence and whatever you are doing gets interrupted.

Here are a few examples:

doorbell rings
telephone rings
kettle boils
alarm goes off
need to go to toilet
sneeze
cough
choke on food
student asks teacher a question
 

Beau Schwabe

Joined Nov 7, 2019
155
Think of an interrupt as the brake on a car .... You want to be able to react and stop quickly if someone pulls out in front of you rather than continue about what you were doing only to apply the brake when it becomes convenient.
 
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