Many years ago I read that a computer had been designed for military and aerospace applications. An interesting feature was that it lacked any form of interrupt handling mechanism. Why do you think the designers took that decision?
What will be an ideal response?
Interrupts and exceptions are, frankly, messy. They can happen at any time and in any combination; that is, interrupts are non?deterministic. Code without exceptions is deterministic because instructions are executed oneby? one in?order (even if they are not, the hardware ensures that they appear as if they were executed in order).
Interrupts bring several problems. One is interaction between interrupts. The other is the timing of interrupts; for example, a low priority interrupt may not be serviced for a very long time if higher priority interrupts are pending in a system with prioritized interrupts. Consequently, it is difficult to predict the behavior of the system under all
circumstances.
By designing a system without interrupts, you put the control back in the hands of the programmer and the system can be proven valid by formal logic techniques. This may be necessary in highly critical applications.
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How many comparisons of array items do the following loops contain?
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All of these facts describe time-sharing systems EXCEPT ____.
A. Were developed in the late 1980s B. Allowed several programs to run concurrently on a single computer C. Users logged in to the computer via a remote terminal. D. Still used today in the form of Web and e-mail servers
What term refers to the maximum speed at which data can be transferred?
A. Bandwidth B. Redundancy C. Amplitude D. Velocity
In the SWF Preview panel, the mouse pointer changes to the _______________ pointer when it is positioned over a hyperlink.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).