17 Interrupts

Interrupt processing is an important aspect of most microcontroller applications. Interrupts may be used to synchronize software operations with events that occur in real time. When interrupts occur, the normal flow of software execution is suspended, and special functions are invoked to process the event. At the completion of interrupt processing, previous context information is restored and normal execution resumes.

PIC32 devices support multiple interrupts, from both internal and external sources. The devices allow high-priority interrupts to override any lower priority interrupts that may be in progress.

The compiler provides full support for interrupt processing in C/C++ or inline assembly code. This section presents an overview of interrupt processing.