Programmable Interrupt Controller

A Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) is a device which allows priority levels to be assigned to its interrupt outputs. When the device has multiple interrupt outputs to assert, it will assert them in the order of their relative priority. Common modes of a PIC include hard priorities, rotating priorities, and cascading priorities. PICs often allow the cascading of their outputs to inputs between each other.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

<integrated circuit> PIC A special-purpose integrated circuit that functions as an overall manager in an interrupt driven system. It accepts requests from the peripheral equipment, determines which of the incoming requests is of the highest priority, ascertains whether the incoming request has a higher priority value than the level currently being serviced, and issues an interrupt to the CPU based on this determination.
PICs typically have eight interrupt lines, and two PICs are often cascaded to provide 15 available interrupt lines.
See also: Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller.
(2003-03-18)