The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 01, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 21, 1998
Muthurajan Jayakumar, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Vijay Kumar Goru, San Jose, CA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for determining whether the highest priority pending interrupt is an active level-triggered interrupt. One method includes: determining whether the vector corresponding to the highest priority pending interrupt matches the vector associated with a particular interrupt input; if it does, determining whether that particular interrupt input is programmed to be a level-triggered interrupt; if it is, determining whether the level-status of that particular interrupt input is active; and, if it is, sending a level-triggered active message for the highest priority pending interrupt, by maintaining the set status of a particular bit. One embodiment of the present invention includes an interrupt service register operable to indicate when an interrupt is being serviced, an interrupt request register operable to indicate when an interrupt is pending, and a comparator operable to compare the vector corresponding to the highest priority pending interrupt with the vector associated with the particular interrupt input. Included also is a control generator coupled to the comparator, and operable to selectively clear and/or set bits contained in the interrupt service register and in the interrupt request register. The present invention supports both edge-triggered and level-triggered interrupts, without the need for a trigger mode register or other similar overhead house-keeping controls and related storage logic, and without any hand-shake requirements.