software interrupt


software interrupt

An interrupt caused by a specific machine languageoperation code (e.g. the Motorola 68000's TRAP, the IBM System/390's SVC or the ARM's SWI) rather than by ahardware event.

As with a hardware interrupt, this causes the processor tostore the current state, store identifying information aboutthe particular interrupt, and pass control to a first levelinterrupt handler.

A trap is similar except that it is caused by an unexpectedsoftware condition or error (e.g. divide by zero, undefinedinstruction) rather than a deliberate instruction.

software interrupt

An interrupt caused by an instruction in the program. See interrupt.