PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

ISA interrupts versus PCI interrupts

ISA and PCI handle interrupts very differently. ISA expansion cards are configured manually for IRQ, usually by setting a jumper, but sometimes by running a setup program. All ISA slots have all IRQ lines present, so it doesn’t matter which card is placed in which slot. ISA cards use edge-sensitive interrupts, which means that an ISA device asserts a voltage on one of the interrupt lines to generate an interrupt. That in turn means that ISA devices cannot share interrupts because when the processor senses voltage on a particular interrupt line, it has no way to determine which of multiple devices might be asserting that interrupt. For ISA slots and devices, the rule is simple: two devices cannot share an IRQ if there is any possibility that those two devices may be used simultaneously. In practice that means that you cannot assign the same IRQ to more than one ISA device.

PCI cards use level-sensitive interrupts, which means that different PCI devices can assert different voltages on the same physical interrupt line, allowing the processor to determine which device generated the interrupt. PCI cards and slots manage interrupts internally. A PCI bus normally supports a maximum of four PCI slots, numbered 1 through 4. Each PCI slot can access four interrupts, labeled INT#1 through INT#4 (or INT#A through INT#D). Ordinarily, INT#1/A is used by PCI Slot 1, INT#2/B by Slot 2, and so on.

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AGP cards support only INT#1/A and INT#2/B, and share ...