Hey,

I'm studying CompTIA A+ at the minute. In my course notes, it states that older systems only used IRQ's 0 - 8 but newer systems can USE up to 15 IRQ's. I'm confused as my laptop has listed up to IRQ 190 in System Information. Were these notes taken from a text BOOK? If so, how old is it? This isn't exactly something I know a lot about, but unless I'm mistaken, the ACPI in Windows 2000 and XP allows up to 24 IRQ's. Vista allows up to 190. And although I'm not quite sure how, I've read that you can get up to 255, but I'm sure that MANY wouldn't be necessary.Interesting question ...... I have wondered this and well remember the hassles of trying way back to find a ''spare IRQ ..... with 9 never seeming enough!!!

I am aware we have more now but not sufficiently up on it to know the real skinny. With all we have and use tho nowadays, sure a need for PLENTY more interrupts.

Someone here probably will I am hoping.Between ACPI and HAL (no, not the HAL-9000) the Hardware Abstraction Layer, I don't believe the operating systems manage devices directly by IRQ (Interrupt Request). I can't really add more than that, though I suspect the IRQ's are now "virtual."


Some info HERE and HERE.