Your source for the most up-to-date terms, definitions, and acronyms for and about internet service providers.
Search for an ISP term
Programmable Interrupt Controller
Last modified: Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Abbreviated as PIC, a Programmable Interrupt Controller is a
interrupt controller that
manages interrupt signals received from devices by
combining multiple interrupts into a single interrupt output. PIC is found on most
PCs today. One of the most well-known Programmable Interrupt Controllers is
Intel 8259A,
which was included in the x86 PC as a part of the motherboardchipset.
Compare with Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
(APIC).
A Description of the APIC I/O Subsystem The implementation of symmetric I/O in the FreeBSD SMP kernel is based upon the Intel Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC).
The 8259 Programmable Interrupt Controller A technique is based on interrupts and allows a system to service devices on demand (asynchronously), thereby increasing the time available to perform other processing tasks.
