In modern computing, an Interrupt Controller plays a crucial role in managing hardware interrupt requests sent to the CPU. As processors evolve, these controllers help optimize performance by handling multiple interrupts efficiently, reducing the CPU’s workload. By prioritizing and multiplexing interrupt signals from various peripherals, an interrupt controller enables the CPU to process multiple tasks seamlessly.
In ARM-based architectures, interrupt handling is categorized into two types: IRQ (Interrupt Request), which supports multiple sources but may introduce slight delays, and FIQ (Fast Interrupt Request), which prioritizes speed by minimizing processing overhead. Understanding how these mechanisms work is essential for designing efficient embedded systems and real-time applications.
A programmable peripheral known as an interrupt controller is responsible for handling interrupt requests from hardware and other peripherals to the CPU. The evolution of processor standards has led to the development of an Interrupt Controller, which alleviates the workload on CPU designs. The interrupt controller serves as a programmable component that controls the activation and deactivation of interrupt requests, as well as the prioritization of these requests. Due to the limited number of hardware lines and computational power, the CPU faces certain restrictions, By multiplexing interrupts from different peripherals, the interrupt controller broadens the CPU’s ability to manage multiple interrupt requests.
Upon the activation of an interrupt, the CPU is alerted with the specific interrupt number. The specific interrupt number employed to trigger the relevant interrupt service routine (ISR) within the CPU.
The ARM Architecture is designed to handle multiple types of interrupt requests