Advanced Embedded Systems Interview Question:

Explain me what is interrupt latency and how can we decrease it?

Submitted by: Muhammad

1. Interrupt latency basically refers to the time span an interrupt is generated and it being serviced by an appropriate routine defined, usually the interrupt handler.
2. External signals, some condition in the program or by the occurrence of some event, these could be the reasons for generation of an interrupt.
3. Interrupts can also be masked so as to ignore them even if an event occurs for which a routine has to be executed.
4. Following steps could be followed to reduce the latency
☛ ISRs being simple and short.
☛ Interrupts being serviced immediately
☛ Avoiding those instructions that increase the latency period.
☛ Also by prioritizing interrupts over threads.
☛ Avoiding use of inappropriate APIs.
Submitted by: Muhammad