As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Interrupt Notes: Definitions & Explanations PDF Download

Study Interrupt lecture notes PDF with operating system definitions and explanation to study “What is Interrupt?”. Study interrupt explanation with operating system terms to review operating system course for online degree programs.

Interrupt Definition:

  • A suspension of a process, such as the execution of a computer program, caused by an event external to that process.

    Operating Systems by William Stallings



Interrupt Notes:

An interrupt is a function of an operating system that provides multi-process multi-tasking. It is a signal that prompts the operating system to stop the work being performed on the process and shift the cycles to process the interrupt. The operating system would not turn back to the main process until the processing of the interrupt is complete.

Keep Learning with Operating System Notes

What is Race Condition?

A race condition is an undesirable situation that occurs when a device or system attempts to perform two or more ...

What is Sequential Access?

Sequential access means that a group of elements, such as data in memory array or magnetic disk storage, is accessed ...

What is Kernel?

A kernel is the central part of an operating system. The task of a kernel is to manage the operations ...

What is Demand Paging?

Demand Paging is a method of virtual memory management. It follows that a process starts its execution without any of ...

What is Deadlock Avoidance?

Deadlock Avoidance algorithms try not to allocate resources to a process if it will make the system in an unsafe ...

What is Communication Architecture?

Communicating architecture is a complex and varied process, varying significantly during the life of a project. During initial stages of ...