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:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1997
Muthurajan Jayakumar, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Vijay Kumar Goru, San Jose, CA (US);
Ravi Eakambaram, San Jose, CA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for controlling interrupts in a computer are disclosed, in which programmable software operates to control when data concerning the interrupt having highest priority is to be provided, and hardware logic operates to control how that data is provided. An interrupt vector register is included in the computer CPU. The interrupt vector register does not act like the typical register. It is not a physical register, and cannot be written to. A read to this register by the programmable software, triggers the hardware logic. Once triggered, this logic performs certain control tasks, the end result of which is returning to the programmable software, a vector corresponding to the interrupt having highest priority. The programmable software can implement various software policies, in addition to the hardware policy implemented by the hardware logic.