vectored interrupt

In a computer, a vectored interrupt is an I/O interrupt that tells the part of the computer that handles I/O interrupts at the hardware level that a request for attention from an I/O device has been received and and also identifies the device that sent the request.

A vectored interrupt is an alternative to a polled interrupt , which requires that the interrupt handler poll or send a signal to each device in turn in order to find out which one sent the interrupt request.