Patent ID: 6928502

Claim:
A method of providing a selectable priority level to computer interrupt source connections, comprising: a) servicing interrupts asserted at a first interrupt request connection according to a first interrupt priority; b) servicing interrupts asserted at a different second interrupt request connection at a different second interrupt priority; c) providing one or more interrupt request control bits, corresponding to a particular interrupt source connection, having a state that is selectable under software control; and d) responding to an assertion of an interrupt request at the particular interrupt request source connection in accordance with the state of the corresponding interrupt request control bits by i) asserting an interrupt request at the first interrupt request connection if the corresponding interrupt request control bits are in a first state during assertion of the interrupt request at the particular interrupt request connection, and ii) asserting an interrupt request at the second interrupt request connection if the corresponding interrupt request control bits are in a different second state during assertion of the interrupt request at the particular interrupt request connection.