Tips For Remembering Irqs, feedback/comments welcom Options

[James]

Here are some tips and tricks to remembering IRQs. Please provide your feedback so the final version can be blogged or linked from Tips section of website. Special thanks to Spy.. I stole some of the initial tips from his post :-)

IRQ 0 System timer........like your watch it's round
IRQ 1 Keyboard............first thing you touch when you sit down
IRQ 2 Cascades to 9

Note : You can remember the first three from the phrase Sue Keeps Cats , with S, K and C representing System, Keyboard and Cascades.

IRQ 3 Com 2&4.......IRQ 3 ( Odd Number) goes to Com2 and Com4 (even Numbers)
IRQ 4 Com1 & Com3.....IRQ 4 (even number) gos to Com1 and Com3 (odd numbers)
IRQ 5 NIC..like the nickel is 5 cents or LPT2(local printer2)
IRQ 6 Floppy Drive.........6 letters...F is the 6th letter for the alphabet (or 6 letters in the word Floppy)
IRQ 7 LPT1........lucky number 7.....if you are lucky to have a printer (or 7 letters in the word Printer)
IRQ 8 Clock..........8o'clock........time for prime time TV shows start (or 8 looks like hour glass that represents clock)
IRQ 9 Redirects to 2
IRQ 10 Available
IRQ 11 Available
IRQ 12 Mouse (PS2[mouse] and IRQ 12 both end with digit 2)
IRQ 13 Maths CoProcessor (13 is an unlucky number for some..Maths is hard for some)
IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller.......it's first
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller....it's second

Another way to remember this is the naughty mneumonic:
Sam Keeps Colorful Condoms Carefully (and) Lovingly For Patricia. They Caress Almost All Monday Mornings Passionately (and) Sensually.

Lack of better mneumonic is regretted. Your suggestions and comments are welcome.

This maps to:
00 Sam -- System Timer
01 Keeps -- Keyboard
02 Colorful -- Cascades to 9
03 Condoms -- Com 2, 4
04 Carfully -- Com 1, 3
(and)
05 Lovingly -- (LPT2 or NIC)
06 For -- Floppy
07 Patricia -- Printer (LPT1)
08 They -- Time ( Real time clock )
09 Caress -- Cascaded IRQ2
10 Almost -- Available
11 All -- Available
12 Monday -- Mouse
13 Mornings -- Math Coprocesso
14 Passionately -- Primary Controller
(and)
15 Sensually -- Secondary Controller


You may need to know the I/O address for IRQ 3 & 4.

IRQ 3...Com 2 2F8
...........Com 4 2E8

IRQ 4...Com 1 3F8
...........Com 3 3E8

Essentially remember the addresses for COM 1-4 and LPT 1 and 2:
COM1: 3F8
COM2: 2F8
COM3: 3E8
COM4: 2E8
LPT1: 378
LPT2: 278

Need a trick for remembering these? Read This Thread On Tricks For Memorizing COM1-4 & LPT1&2 Addresses

Test Yourself:
http://www.studynotes.net/QIRQ.htm

[James]

I know the mneumonic is quite pathetic ...any feedback or new mneumonic is welcome....I'll combine the feedback to create a blog post

[brianrobinson]

This is the one I used in class.
IRQ SETTINGS
0 SYSTEM TIMER Simon
1 KEYBOARD Keeps
2 VIDEO CARD OR LINK TO IRQ 9 Very
3 COM 2 & COM 4 Crazy
4 COM 1 & COM 3 Cats
5 SOUND CARD / OPEN / LPT2 Sarah
6 FLOPPY DISK DRIVE Feels
7 LPT1 Like
8 REAL TIME CLOCK Cows
9 LINK TO IRQ 2 / OPEN / VGA / NIC Love
10 OPEN / CD ROM CD's
11 OPEN Only
12 PS2 MOUSE Mary
13 MATH COPROCESSOR McParry
14 HDD / IDE1 Has
15 OPEN / IDE2 Double D's

Simon Keeps Very Crazy Cats, Sarah Feels Like Cows Love CDs. Only Mary McParry Has Double D,s

This post has been edited by brianrobinson: Mar 3 2006, 12:21 AM

[James]

Thanks Brian, Thats a great one. Hopefully some more will come in.

[profstef]

This was soo great! Thanks for the help, this is one of my difficult areas...

[Darrel]

This was soo great! Thanks for the help, this is one of my difficult areas...

hi im new and this is the most relevent area for my studying at the moment i have little flash cards all over my kitchen cuboards with all of the different tricky specs e.t.c to remember, but i see on here that someone said just to remember the com and lpt hexdecimal numbers in the i/o addresses.
i have been trying to remember all of them, 13 in total i think [do i only need to remember the com and lpt ones]
thanks for any reply

[The Luckydog]

This is great. I teach A+ and I'm going to use your post as an option for remembering IRQs, if you don't mind. Thanks.

[c_los1519]

This is great for my study, thanks a lot!!!!!!!!

[beerbelly]

Real god tips on remembering IRQs thanks

[Chris-gibson]

Great tips, this site is amazing. I am writting the hardware in 3 weeks.....I can see I will be referring to this site a lot before that time.

[ksyniculone]

Thanks for the tips for remembering IRQs. Now if I could only get down the basics of how to read in hexidecimal.

[NickHeel]

Thanks for the tips for remembering IRQs. Now if I could only get down the basics of how to read in hexidecimal.

If you learn Binary first and can proficiently do that, then it's not that hard. Just go 4 bits at a time instead of 8 for Hex.

In fact, here's the way I do it:

Divid your binary string of numbers into two 4-bit segments if you have a string of 8 bits (that 8-bit binary string is usually called an "octet").

Now for Hex, all you do is count up the value in each 4 bit segment of the first bit. So for bits 1, 2, 4, and 8 you just count up the value and assign it a Hex digit 0-9 or A-F for values of 10-15.

For the 16, 32, 64, and 128 bits...just act like they are the prevous 4 bits (1-8) and assign the appropriate 0-9/A-F Hex digit.

Or what some people like to do is simply add everything up in each 4 bit segment and divide by the actual value of the first bit of that segment. So if you had a total of 192 in bits 16-128 bit, just divide 192 by 16 (since 16 is the first bit in that segment) and that gives you the hex value. If you had a total 13 in the 1-8 bits, just divide by 1 (since 1 is the first bit in that segment) and that gives you the value of the last hex value.

But the key is understanding binary first. Then learn you hex values (0-9 and A-F) and that they're only good for each 4 bit segment in a binary string. Then just figure out what method works best for you.

This post has been edited by NickHeel: Apr 22 2006, 03:38 PM

[Kim]

There are some great anagrams, but anyone got anything really easy for DMAs??? My main problem is IRQs and DMA addressings etc ...

This post has been edited by Kim: Apr 23 2006, 01:12 AM

[NickHeel]

My suggestion for DMAs is kind of...simple. There's only a 3 or 4 DMAs that are used and the rest will be listed as "available". So instead of memorizing and entire list of the same thing, just memorize what is used. Then just remember that the rest is available.

[spy1954]

I must say, I was and still am honored that my posting for how I remembered the IRQ's is still beening used. The members must know my main reason for putting together some post this way. It's to learn, yes you also can learn by helping others. I had already passed the core when I put together the IRQ post.

If it will help out anyone else, here is the IRQ list you can download.

spy

This post has been edited by spy1954: Apr 23 2006, 01:37 PM

Attached File(s)

 Remember_IRQ_s.doc ( 20.5K ) Number of downloads: 402

 

[James]

I must say, I was and still am honored that my posting for how I remembered the IRQ's is still beening used.

Spy, this one is permanently linked from the tips section of webiste at:
http://www.proprofs.com/certification/comp...als/index.shtml

[KiD]

Thank you! I had trouble remember them but knowing these tips have helped me. This site has alot of great info.

[bkrieger]

Every post on here seems to list different IRQ's. Some post I've seen says IRQ 9 iss Link to IRQ 2/Open/VGA/NIC. Others say IRQ 9 just Links to IRQ 2. Some say IRQ 10 is Open/CD Rom. Most say its Open. Can I please have a full list once and for all what all 15 IRQ's are so I know what to study? Thank you

[leadhead]

Every post on here seems to list different IRQ's. Some post I've seen says IRQ 9 iss Link to IRQ 2/Open/VGA/NIC. Others say IRQ 9 just Links to IRQ 2. Some say IRQ 10 is Open/CD Rom. Most say its Open. Can I please have a full list once and for all what all 15 IRQ's are so I know what to study? Thank you

I have read through so many posts related to IRQ's that I find it all a bit overwhelming. I have a couple of questions that may help me sort out my confusion.

1- Most people seem to list IRQ5 as LPT2. However, IRQ5 is also listed as NIC or Sound Card. Does this mean that since it is the first IRQ going down the list that is assigned to something not commonly needed (LPT2) that it is typically selected for NIC's or Sound Cards?

2- I have taken the 1st core practice exam here and had a question related to the IRQ typically used (or selected) for the sound card. The correct answer turned out to be IRQ10. IRQ10 is listed as available as far as I can tell. This seems to contradict the use of IRQ5 (above) so what is the correct IRQ for the sound card?

[RRRTYN]

Some real good tips! Thanks.