Intel Corporation

Shing Wong

James P Kardach

Gregory Scott Mathews

Sung Soo Cho

Cau L Nguyen

Kameswaran Sivamani

Edward S Zager

David S Vannier

A transparent system interrupt is invoked by the assertion of an electrical signal at an external pin of a microprocessor CPU chip. Upon assertion of this interrupt, the CPU begins program execution in a dedicated RAM area that is inaccessible both to the operating system and all application programs. A set of instructions, which may be unique to the system in which the CPU chip is installed, services the interrupt. Typically, the state of the CPU and associated components in the system immediately prior to assertion of the interrupt will be saved into the dedicated RAM area by the interrupt service routine. Recovery from the interrupt is accomplished upon recognition of an external event that invokes a RESUME instruction causing the CPU and associated components to be restored to exactly the same state that existed prior to the interrupt and in a manner entirely transparent to any program executing at the time of the interrupt.

Computer system with interrupts transparent to its operating system and

Transparent system interrupt

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Shing Wong