Interrupt

Alternatively called a maskable interrupt or trap, an interrupt is sometimes abbreviated as INTR and is a command or request. It tells the processor to stop what it's doing and wait for further instructions.

Hardware interrupts or maskable interrupts are interrupts that can be masked or turned off for a short time while the CPU (central processing unit) is used for other critical operations.

APIC, Computer abbreviations, Halt, Hardware terms, INTA, Internal interrupt, Interrupt handler, IRQ, NMI, PCI IRQ Steering, SMI