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Example - 10swint.asm - Software Interrupts |
; -------------------------------------------------------------- ; An example of software interrupts. ; -------------------------------------------------------------- JMP Start ; Jump past table of interrupt vectors DB 51 ; Vector at 02 pointing to address 51 DB 71 ; Vector at 03 pointing to address 71 Start: INT 02 ; Do interrupt 02 INT 03 ; Do interrupt 03 JMP Start ; -------------------------------------------------------------- ORG 50 DB E0 ; Data byte - could be a whole table here ; Interrupt code starts here MOV AL,[50] ; Copy bits from RAM into AL NOT AL ; Invert the bits in AL MOV [50],AL ; Copy inverted bits back to RAM OUT 01 ; Send data to traffic lights IRET ; -------------------------------------------------------------- ORG 70 DB 0 ; Data byte - could be a table here ; Interrupt code starts here MOV AL,[70] ; Copy bits from RAM into AL NOT AL ; Invert the bits in AL AND AL,FE ; Force right most bit to zero MOV [70],AL ; Copy inverted bits back to RAM OUT 02 ; Send data to seven segment display IRET ; -------------------------------------------------------------- END ; -------------------------------------------------------------- TASK 26) Write a new interrupt 02 that fetches a key press from the keyboard and stores it into RAM. The IBM PC allocates 16 bytes for key press storage. The 16 locations are used in a circular fashion. 27) Create a new interrupt that puts characters onto the next free screen location. See if you can get correct behaviour in response to the Enter key being pressed (fairly easy) and if the Back Space key is pressed (harder). |
You can copy this example program from the help page and paste it into the source code editor.
Interrupts are short code fragments that provide useful services that can be used by other programs. Typical routines handle key presses, mouse movements and button presses, screen writing, disk reading and writing and so on.
An interrupt is like a procedure but it is called in a different way. Procedures are called by jumping to the start address of the procedure. This address is known only to the program that owns the procedure. Interrupts are called by looking up the address of the interrupt code in a table of interrupt vectors. The contents of this table is published and widely known. MS DOS makes heavy use of interrupts for all its disk, screen, mouse, network, keyboard and other services.
By writing your own code and making the interrupt vector point to the code you wrote, the behaviour of interrupts can be completely altered. Your interrupt code might add some useful behaviour and then jump back to the original code to complete the work. This is called TRAPPING the interrupt.
Software interrupts are triggered, on demand, by programs.
Hardware interrupts are triggered by electronic signals to the CPU from hardware devices.
In the IBM compatible computer, addresses 0 to 1024 decimal are used for storing interrupt vectors. The entries in this table of vectors point to all the code fragments that control MS DOS screen, disk, mouse, keyboard and other services. The simulator vectors sit between addresses 0 and 15 decimal. It is convenient to start a simulator program with a jump command that occupies two bytes. This means that the first free address for an interrupt vector is [02]. This is used by the hardware timer if the interrupt flag is set.
Have another look at the example program. 10swint.asm
This is quite complex. The command INT 02 causes the CPU to retrieve the contents of RAM location 02. After saving the return address onto the stack, the instruction pointer IP is set to this address.
The interrupt code is then executed. When complete the IRET command causes the return from the interrupt. The CPU instruction pointer IP is set to the address that was saved onto the stack earlier.
If you wan to trap interrupt 02, change the address stored at address 02 to point to code that you have written. Your code will then handle the interrupt. When complete, your code can use IRET to return from the interrupt or it can jump to the address that was originally in address 02. This causes the original interrupt code to be executed as well. In this way, you can replace or modify the behaviour of an interrupt.
© C Neil Bauers 2003