Keyboard interrupt

Keyboard interrupt has two distinct, but related, meanings:

For high level software, it is a special condition (often implemented as an error code or exception), usually generated by the keyboard. The key combination used is often Control-C (for 'cancel'). This is used in some programming languages to allow breaking out of an infinite loop or overlong program at the command prompt without being forced to kill the entire process.
For low level software and hardware a keyboard interrupt is an interrupt that is generated when any key is pressed, not just a special escape combination, to allow the CPU to handle the input. This may lead to the propagation of a high level keyboard interrupt.

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