Interrupt Request - Conflicts

Conflicts

In IBM-compatible personal computers, an IRQ conflict is a once common hardware error, received when two devices were trying to use the same interrupt request (or IRQ) to signal an interrupt to the Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC).

The PIC expects interrupt requests from only one device per line, thus more than one device sending IRQ signals along the same line will generally cause an IRQ conflict that can freeze a computer.

In some rare conditions, two devices can share the same IRQ as long as they are not used simultaneously.

If one adds a modem expansion card to a system, and assign it to IRQ4, which is traditionally assigned to the COM1 serial port, it will likely cause an IRQ conflict.


Read more about this topic:  Interrupt Request

Famous quotes containing the word conflicts:

    “The extrovert and introvert, the realist and idealist, the scientist and philosopher, the man who found himself by refinding his life history and the individual who discovered his being in fantasy, these are the differences between Freud and Jung.”
    —Robert S. Steele. Freud and Jung: Conflicts of Interpretation, ch. 10, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1982)

    “I would rather be the child of a mother who has all the inner conflicts of the human being than be mothered by someone for whom all is easy and smooth, who knows all the answers, and is a stranger to doubt.”
    —D.W. Winnicott (20th century)

    “The more parents intervene, the more siblings fight. And the bigger role parents assume in settling arguments, the less chance siblings have to learn how to resolve conflicts for themselves.”
    —Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)