A Programmable Interrupt Controller (or PIC) is an Intel 8259A chip that controls interrupts. Starting with the 286-based AT, there are two PICs in a personal computer, providing a total of 15 usable IRQs. The PIC has been superseded by an Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC), or 82489DX chip, that is enhanced for multiprocessing.
See also
- IRQ.
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.
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