An interruptible operating system is an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

with ability to handle multiple

interrupt In digital computers, an interrupt (sometimes referred to as a trap) is a request for the processor to ''interrupt'' currently executing code (when permitted), so that the event can be processed in a timely manner. If the request is accepted, ...

s concurrently, or in other words, which allow interrupts to be interrupted. Concurrent interrupt handling essentially mean concurrent execution of

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learn ...

code and hence induces the additional complexity of concurrency control in accessing kernel datastructures. It also means that the system can stop any program that is already running, which is a feature on nearly all modern operating systems.

See also