Define software and hardware interrupt.

Hardware interrupts: If the signal for the processor is from external device or hardware is called hardware interrupts. Example: from keyboard we will press the key to do some action this pressing of key in keyboard will generate a signal which is given to the processor to do action, such interrupts are called hardware interrupts. Hardware interrupts can be classified into two types they are

(i) Mask-able Interrupt: The hardware interrupts which can be delayed when a much highest priority interrupt has occurred to the processor.

(ii) Non Mask-able Interrupt: The hardware which cannot be delayed and should process by the processor immediately.

Software Interrupts: Software interrupt can also divided in to two types. They are

(i) Normal Interrupts: The interrupts which are caused by the software instructions are called software instructions.

·    Exception: Unplanned interrupts while executing a program is called Exception. For example: while executing a program if we got a value which should be divided by zero is called a exception.