International Business Machines Corporation

Floyd R Bliss

Joel C Leininger

Peter T Fairchild

An interrupt system for an instruction pre-fetch microprocessor is provided. The interrupt system includes an instruction address register coupled to a storage address register for holding the next succeeding instruction address to the pre-fetched in a sequence of instructions. A storage address register is provided and is coupled to the instruction address register and is coupled to the storage address register for holding the storage address to be accessed. A first latch receives and stores an interrupt request from one of a plurality of peripheral devices. A second latch, enabling interrupts, is coupled to the storage unit and controlled by instructions from the microprocessor. An interrupt link register stores values of the instruction address register and page information together with arithmetic and logic unit status bits when an interrupt request has occurred from one of the plurality of peripheral devices and an interrupt cycle is executed. The system further includes an interrupt circuit coupled to the first and second latches for inhibiting updating of the instruction address register to a next succeeding instruction. Circuitry is coupled to the first and second latches for inhibiting the operation of the interrupt circuitry following a data storage cycle or a successful branch operation. Circuitry is also provided to cause the next instruction to be executed following an interrupt cycle to be fetched from a predefined word in storage.

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Boca Raton, FL, United States of America

Floyd R Bliss