<sect1 id="interrupts">
<sect1info>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Matthias</firstname>
<surname>H&ouml;lzer</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Helge</firstname>
<surname>Deller</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Duncan</firstname>
<surname>Haldane</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Mike</firstname>
<surname>McBride</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<date>21/10/2000</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>IRQ</keyword>
<keyword>interrupts</keyword>
<keyword>system information</keyword>
</keywordset>
</sect1info>
<title>Interrupt Request (<abbrev>IRQ</abbrev>) Lines in Use</title>

<para>This page displays information about the Interrupt Request
Lines in use, and the devices that use them.</para>

<para>An <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev> is a hardware line used in a PC by
(<abbrev>ISA</abbrev> bus) devices like keyboards, modems, sound cards,
<abbrev>etc</abbrev>., to send interrupt signals to the processor to tell it
that the device is ready to send or accept data.  Unfortunately, there are only
sixteen <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev>'s (0-15) available in the i386
(<abbrev>PC</abbrev>) architecture for sharing among the <abbrev>ISA</abbrev>
various devices.</para>

<para>Many hardware problems are the result of <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev> conflicts,
when two devices try to use the same <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev>, or software is
misconfigured to use a different <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev> from the one a device is
actually configured for.</para>

<note><para>The exact information displayed is system-dependent.  On some
systems, <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev> information cannot be displayed yet.</para></note>

<para>On Linux, this information is read from
<filename>/proc/interrupts</filename>, which is only available if the
<filename>/proc</filename> pseudo-filesystem is compiled into the kernel.</para>

<para>The first column, is the <abbrev>IRQ</abbrev> number.  The second column,
is the number of interrupts that have been received since the last reboot.  The
third column shows the type of interrupt.  The fourth, identifies the device
assigned to that interrupt.</para>

<para>The user cannot modify any settings on this page.</para>

<sect2 id="interupt-author">
<title>Section Authors</title>

<para> Matthias H&ouml;lzer <email>hoelzer@kde.org</email>, Helge Deller
<email>helge.deller@ruhruni-bochum.de</email>, Duncan Haldane
<email>duncan@kde.org</email>,and Michael McBride
<email>mpmcbride7@yahoo.com</email></para> 

</sect2> 
</sect1>
