Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
INT (x86 instruction)
open-in-new
<p>INT is an <a href="/facts/Assembly_language/7XuV0cla">assembly language</a> instruction for <a href="/facts/X86/Kypq5fgu">x86</a> <a href="/facts/Central_processing_unit/Jxp1bqMV">processors</a> that generates a <a href="/facts/Software_interrupt/Mm6C4rpc">software interrupt</a>. It takes the interrupt number formatted as a <a href="/facts/Byte/BNHUp9Qq">byte</a> value. </p><p>When written in assembly language, the instruction is written like this: </p> INT <i>X</i> <p>where <i>X</i> is the <i>software interrupt</i> that should be generated (0-255). </p><p>As is customary with machine binary arithmetic, interrupt numbers are often written in <a href="/facts/Hexadecimal/02ohQW22">hexadecimal</a> form, which can be indicated with a prefix <i>0x</i> or with the suffix <i>h</i>. For example, <a href="/facts/INT_13H/01oMYPbW">INT 13H</a> will generate the 20th <i>software interrupt</i> (0x13 is nineteen (19) in hexadecimal notation, and the count starts at 0), causing the function pointed to by the 20th vector in the <a href="/facts/Interrupt_vector_table/wq6sxJTo">interrupt table</a> to be executed. </p><p>INT is widely used in <a href="/facts/Real_mode/wfU8vfjn">real mode</a>. In <a href="/facts/Protected_mode/y5u3Gwqq">protected mode</a>, INT is a <a href="/facts/Protection_ring/27y4kjHs">privileged instruction</a>. </p>