| Main | Assembly Programming | Input/Output | Memory | Computer Architecture | Advanced Topics |
Say you design a micro-programmed processor that has 4 distinct steps for each instruction: Instruction Fetch, Instruction Decode & Fetch Operands, Execute, and Writeback. In what step should the micro-program check if there is a pending interrupt?
In the writeback step because the processor must determine whether the next step is a fetch or interrupt handler.
or
At the fetch step address determination, because this is where the usual fetch microaddress will be modified to the interrupt handler microaddress.