Meaning – The term interrupt, refers to the suspension of a process, such as execution of a computer program caused by an external event, and performed in such a way that the process can be resumed.
It also refers to the act of stopping a process in such a way that it may be resumed again at a later date.
An interrupt is a signal sent to the processor that interrupts the current process. It may be generated by a hardware device or a software program.
Software interrupts are used to handle errors and exceptions that occur while a program is running. For example, if a program expects a variable to be a valid number, but the value is null, an interrupt may be generated to prevent the program from crashing.
Example of usage – “Typing “hello” creates five interrupt requests, which allows the program to display the letters you typed. Similarly, each time you click a mouse button or tap on a touchscreen, you send an interrupt signal to the device.”
