Interrupt Handler

/ˈɪn.tə.rʌpt ˈhænd.lər/ · Noun · Development · Origin: 1958

Definitions

  1. A callback function registered with the kernel that executes immediately when a hardware or software interrupt fires, preempting the currently running code to service the event.

    In plain English: A special piece of code that drops everything and runs immediately when hardware needs attention, like a doctor being paged during dinner — the current task pauses until the urgent matter is handled.

    Example: "The interrupt handler for the CAN bus was taking too long, starving the real-time task. We moved the heavy parsing to a deferred work queue."

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