Fundamentals · Medium · Free
What are hardware interrupts vs software interrupts?
FresherFundamentalsOperating Systems
Interrupts
| Type | Source | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Devices | Disk finished read, NIC packet |
| Software | Trap instruction | System call, divide by zero |
CPU saves context, jumps to interrupt handler in kernel, then resumes user code—how I/O overlaps with compute.
Contrast polling (wastes CPU) vs interrupts (event-driven).