apps/doc/kinfocenter/interrupts/index.docbook

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   9 <title>Interrupt Request (<abbrev>IRQ</abbrev>) Lines</title>
  10 <articleinfo>
  11
  12 <authorgroup>
  13 <author>&Matthias.Hoelzer-Kluepfel;</author>
  14 <author>&Helge.Deller;</author>
  15 <author>&Duncan.Haldane;</author>
  16 <author>&Mike.McBride;</author>
  17 <!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
  18 </authorgroup>
  19
  20 <date>2002-02-12</date>
  21 <releaseinfo>3.00.00</releaseinfo>
  22
  23 <keywordset>
  24 <keyword>KDE</keyword>
  25 <keyword>KControl</keyword>
  26 <keyword>IRQ</keyword>
  27 <keyword>interrupts</keyword>
  28 <keyword>system information</keyword>
  29 </keywordset>
  30 </articleinfo>
  31
  32 <sect1>
  33 <title>Interrupt Request (<abbrev>IRQ</abbrev>) Lines in Use</title>
  34
  35 <para>This page displays information about the Interrupt Request
  36 Lines in use, and the devices that use them.</para>
  37
  38 <para>An <acronym>IRQ</acronym> is a hardware line used in a
  39 <acronym>PC</acronym> by (<acronym>ISA</acronym> bus) devices like
  40 keyboards, modems, sound cards, &etc;, to send interrupt signals to the
  41 processor to tell it that the device is ready to send or accept data.
  42 Unfortunately, there are  only sixteen <acronym>IRQ</acronym>'s (0-15)
  43 available in the i386 (<acronym>PC</acronym>) architecture for sharing among
  44 the various <acronym>ISA</acronym> devices.</para>
  45
  46 <para>Many hardware problems are the result of <acronym>IRQ</acronym>
  47 conflicts, when two devices try to use the same <acronym>IRQ</acronym>, or
  48 software is misconfigured to use a different <acronym>IRQ</acronym> from the
  49 one a device is actually configured for.</para>
  50
  51 <note><para>The exact information displayed is system-dependent.  On some
  52 systems, <acronym>IRQ</acronym> information cannot be displayed
  53  yet.</para></note>
  54
  55 <para>On &Linux;, this information is read from
  56 <filename class="directory">/proc/interrupts</filename>, which is only
  57 available if the <filename class="directory">/proc</filename>
  58 pseudo-filesystem is compiled into the  kernel.</para>
  59
  60 <para>The first column, is the <acronym>IRQ</acronym> number.  The second
  61 column, is the number of interrupts that have been received since the last
  62 reboot.  The third column shows the type of interrupt.  The fourth,
  63 identifies the device assigned to that interrupt.</para>
  64
  65 <para>The user cannot modify any settings on this page.</para>
  66
  67 </sect1>
  68
  69 </article>
  70