The documentation (from intel) is available here: http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/manual/253668.pdf (pdf link. You are after Chapter 6)Originally Posted by BobMcGee123
Now, while my own argument -- that exceptions are just a different kind of interrupts -- may be open for debate, the authors on the book linked by DavidP are in my opinion grossly mistaken. Exceptions are a subset of the Interrupt Descriptor Table (6.1.0). One can argue they can all be called exceptions. But I disagree. If anything they can all be called an interrupt, since a software forced INT n exception will generate an interrupt (6.4.2). The other exception generation instructions are INT instructions (INT0 and INT 3). The remaining one, BOUND generates INT 5 if the bounds check fails.
There are clear differences between interrupt and exception handling. So this is why I'm open for debate regarding my own argument on exceptions being a different type of interrupt. But definitely, one cannot say interrupts are exceptions. Exceptions are generated through INT instructions pointing to the interrupt vectors described in the Interrupt Descriptor Table.
