What term describes a suspension of a process caused by an external event, enabling it to resume later?

What term describes a suspension of a process caused by an external event, enabling it to resume later?

• A. Memory Manager
• B. Interrupt
• C. Operating System
• D. Data Bus

Answer: (B)

An interrupt is a signal that causes the processor to suspend the currently running task because of an external event (such as a key press, a completed I/O operation, or a timer). When the interrupt occurs, the CPU saves the current state, jumps to a small routine that handles the event, and once that handling is finished, restores the saved state to resume the original task. This mechanism lets the system respond promptly to events without wasting cycles on constant polling. The other terms don’t describe this dynamic. A memory manager deals with allocating and swapping memory, the operating system coordinates overall system resources, and the data bus is simply a path for moving data between components. None of these, on their own, capture the idea of a computation being paused by an external event and then picked up again later.

An interrupt is a signal that causes the processor to suspend the currently running task because of an external event (such as a key press, a completed I/O operation, or a timer). When the interrupt occurs, the CPU saves the current state, jumps to a small routine that handles the event, and once that handling is finished, restores the saved state to resume the original task. This mechanism lets the system respond promptly to events without wasting cycles on constant polling.

The other terms don’t describe this dynamic. A memory manager deals with allocating and swapping memory, the operating system coordinates overall system resources, and the data bus is simply a path for moving data between components. None of these, on their own, capture the idea of a computation being paused by an external event and then picked up again later.