Discuss polling and interrupts by first providing a definiti

Discuss polling and interrupts by first providing a definition of both terms. Now, describe the techniques required to implement each within the microcontroller program.

Solution

polling

In electronic communication, \'polling\' is the continuous checking of other programs or devices by one progam or device to see what state they are in, usually to see whether they are still connected or want to communicate.

Specifically, in multipoint or multidrop communication (a controlling device with multiple devices attached that share the same line), the controlling device sends a message to each device, one at a time, asking each whether it has anything to communicate (in other words, whether it wants to use the line).

INTERRUPT

An interrupt is a signal from a device attached to a computer or from a program within the computer that causes the main program that operates the computer (the operating system ) to stop and figure out what to do next. Almost all personal (or larger) computers today areinterrupt-driven - that is, they start down the list of computer instruction s in one program (perhaps an application such as a word processor) and keep running the instructions until either (A) they can\'t go any further or (B) an interrupt signal is sensed. After the interrupt signal is sensed, the computer either resumes running the program it was running or begins running another program.

Basically, a single computer can perform only one computer instruction at a time. But, because it can be interrupted, it can take turns in which programs or sets of instructions that it performs. This is known as multitasking . It allows the user to do a number of different things at the same time. The computer simply takes turns managing the programs that the user effectively starts. Of course, the computer operates at speeds that make it seem as though all of the user\'s tasks are being performed at the same time. (The computer\'s operating system is good at using little pauses in operations and user think time to work on other programs.)

An operating system usually has some code that is called an interrupt handler . The interrupt handler prioritizes the interrupts and saves them in a queue if more than one is waiting to be handled. The operating system has another little program, sometimes called a scheduler , that figures out which program to give control to next.

In general, there are hardware interrupts and software interrupts. A hardware interrupt occurs, for example, when an I/O operation is completed such as reading some data into the computer from a tape drive. A software interrupt occurs when an application program terminates or requests certain services from the operating system. In a personal computer, a hardware interrupt request ( IRQ ) has a value associated with it that associates it with a particular device.

techniques

push technology

long pulling

HTTP POLLING