I need to learn about IRQ's. Can someone give me the low down on them or point me in the right direction?

[mellondust]

What exactly are they, why are they important, how can you configure them? These are the kinds of questions I have. Places on the web I have looked at go over my head in tecnicality. I think I might have some IRQ conflicts, but I know nothing about them.

 

[Antoneo]

IRQ=Interupt ReQuest

Very Basically, it's used by devices get attention from the processor. Think of it this way, there are 11 students in the class and one teacher. In this situation, each student would be each separate device on the computer. The teacher would be the processor. To get the attention of the teacher, the student who needs the attention raises his hand. The CPU looks at the signal given by the device and gives it processing power. IRQ conflicts occur when two devices (or students) raise a flag/hand to the CPU/teacher and "conflicts" with each other.

This is the very basic way of explaining it and probably not the best either but hope this helps.