Interrupt request

Hardware interrupts are used to handle events such as receiving data from a modem or network card, key presses, or mouse movements.

In x86 based computer systems that use two of these PICs, the combined set of lines are referred to as IRQ0 through IRQ15.

[1] During the early years of personal computing, IRQ management was often of user concern.

[2] When working with personal computer hardware, installing and removing devices, the system relies on interrupt requests.

Modern plug and play technology has not only reduced the need for concern for these settings, but has also virtually eliminated manual configuration.

Early PCs using the Intel 8086/8088 processors only had a single PIC, and are therefore limited to eight interrupts.

The serial ports are frequently disabled to free an IRQ line for another device.