An interrupt vector table, a concept common across various processor architectures, is a table of interrupt vectors that associates an interrupt handler with an interrupt request in a machine specific way. A dispatch table is one method of implementing an interrupt vector table.
When the CPU is interrupted by an interrupt, it looks up the interrupt handler in the interrupt vector table, and transfers control to it.
Mathematically a vector is described as having magnitude and direction. Practically, you can apply this to an interrupt vector table by describing the address (or address length) as its magnitude, and its location as a direction within the table (see below).
A commonly used x86 Real Mode interrupt is 0x10, the VGA BIOS code to handle primitive screen drawing functions.
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