Programmable Interrupt Controller


Programmable Interrupt Controller

(integrated circuit)PIC A special-purpose integrated circuit that functions as an overall manager in aninterrupt driven system. It accepts requests from theperipheral equipment, determines which of the incomingrequests is of the highest priority, ascertains whether theincoming request has a higher priority value than the levelcurrently being serviced, and issues an interrupt to the CPUbased on this determination.

PICs typically have eight interrupt lines, and two PICs areoften cascaded to provide 15 available interrupt lines.

See also: Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller.