You need to know which IRQs are still available to be used by a NIC so it won’t conflict with another device using the same interrupt, study this table.
Each device must use a unique Interrupt and a unique I/O setting.
You can have several network cards in one PC but all with their own unique Interrupt and I/O.
IRQ
1 |
Keyboard |
IRQ 2 |
Video Card |
IRQ 3 |
Com2, Com4 |
IRQ 4 |
Com1, Com3 |
IRQ 5 |
LPT2 |
IRQ 6 |
Floppy Disk Controller |
IRQ 7 |
Parallel Port (LPT1) |
IRQ 8 |
Real-time clock |
IRQ 9 |
Redirected IRQ2 |
IRQ 10 |
Available |
IRQ 11 |
Available |
IRQ 12 |
PS/2 Mouse |
IRQ 13 |
Math Coprocessor |
IRQ 14 |
Hard Disk Controller |
IRQ 15 |
Available |