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| Hardware Interrupt | Software Interrupt |
|---|---|
| It is an asynchronous event. | It is synchronous event. |
| This interrupt is requested by external device on a pin. | This interrupt is requested by executing instruction. |
| Program counter is not incremented | Program counter is incremented |
| It can be masked except for TRAP | It cannot be masked or ignored |
| The priority is lower than that of Software Interrupt | It has highest priority among all interrupt |
|
Hardware interrupts can be classified into two types they are: 1. Maskable Interrupt. 2. Non Maskable Interrupt. |
Software interrupts can be classified into two types they are: 1. Normal Interrupts 2. Exception |