asm/reference

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HLT



Stops instruction execution by placing the processor in a halt state. The processor remains in this state until a wake-up event occurs, such as an external interrupt, a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI), or a RESET signal.

The table after the description covers what the source and destinations can be.

source destination(s)
#I #I

DO NOT support LOCK

HLT is available in both 64-bit mode and compatibility mode. In protected mode or 64-bit mode, the instruction SHALL generate a General Protection (#GP) exception if executed with CPL > 0 (i.e., it is a privileged instruction).

To avoid an unexpected system hang, the IF (Interrupt Flag) in RFLAGS SHALL be set to 1 before executing HLT. If interrupts are disabled (IF=0) and no NMI is pending, the processor will enter a state from which it cannot be woken by standard external interrupts, requiring a hardware reset to resume execution.