privileged instruction

[′priv·ə·lijd in′strək·shən]

(computer science)

A class of instructions, usually including storage protection setting, interrupt handling, timer control, input/output, and special processor status-setting instructions, that can be executed only when the computer is in a special privileged mode that is generally available to an operating or executive system, but not to user programs.

privileged instruction

A machine code instruction that may only be executed when the processor is running in supervisor mode. Privileged instructions include operations such as I/O and memory management.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

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