INT (x86 instruction)
INT (x86 instruction)
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INT (x86 instruction)

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INT (x86 instruction)

INT is an assembly language instruction for x86 processors that generates a software interrupt. It takes the interrupt number formatted as a byte value.

When written in assembly language, the instruction is written like this:

where X is the software interrupt that should be generated (0-255).

As is customary with machine binary arithmetic, interrupt numbers are often written in hexadecimal form, which can be indicated with a prefix 0x or with the suffix h. For example, INT 13H will generate the 20th software interrupt (0x13 is nineteen (19) in hexadecimal notation, and the count starts at 0), causing the function pointed to by the 20th vector in the interrupt table to be executed.

INT is widely used in real mode. In protected mode, INT is a privileged instruction.

When generating a software interrupt, the processor calls one of the 256 functions pointed to by the interrupt address table, which is located in the first 1024 bytes of memory while in real mode (see interrupt vector). It is therefore entirely possible to use a far-call instruction to start the interrupt-function manually after pushing the flag register.

An example of a useful DOS software interrupt was interrupt 0x21. By calling it with different parameters in the registers (mostly ah and al) you could access various IO operations, string output and more.

Most Unix systems and derivatives do not use software interrupts, with the exception of interrupt 0x80, used to make system calls back in pre mid-2000s days. This is accomplished by entering a 32-bit value corresponding to a kernel function into the EAX register of the processor and then executing INT 0x80.

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