Disabling an interrupt is known as ______.

Concept

In an interrupt-driven system, the CPU can selectively ignore an interrupt request by setting a bit in an interrupt-mask register. This act of switching off (disabling) recognition of an interrupt source is called masking. A masked interrupt remains pending or is ignored — the CPU does not jump to its service routine.

Application

"Disabling an interrupt" is, by definition, masking it: the mask bit for that interrupt is set so the processor stops responding to that signal even when it is asserted. Masking can be done in hardware (mask pins/registers on the interrupt controller) or in software (writing the mask register).

Contrast

• Run, Stop, and Halt all describe execution states of a process or the CPU — whether instructions are being executed — and have nothing to do with switching an interrupt line on or off.

• Only masking names the mechanism that controls (enables/disables) which interrupt signals the CPU will recognize.