
Computer interfacing
From this
8-bit
code a corresponding
3-bit
code is gener-
ated, using an
8-to-3
line encoder, which can then be
compared with the contents of a
3-bit
priority register,
the contents of which have been specified by the pro-
grammer. It is possible to use this result to prevent lower
priority interrupts from having any effect. This together
with the mask register is very powerful in establishing
priorities. The
3-bit
code here described is known as a
level vector and, as a
3-bit
code can take up eight differ-
ent values, in some designs of PIC it is used to access
one-of-eight 16-bit registers, each of which has previously