I don't need exact figures but I want to know a realistic sense of the typical average pc's ability to read input interrupts in 1 millisecond period. Say a mouse keeps moving, how many reads happen for an average or a gaming mouse for that matter, by the os?
In other words if we make a program that tries to record mouse inputs, how frequent should we read in order to read a single input value more than once?
This depends on hardware and what kind of device you are talking about. Intel actually provides the maximum rate of interrupt for its xHCI USB controller. I would say this maximum rate is probably too high for any gaming mouse. The Intel document about xHCI (https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/technical-specifications/extensible-host-controler-interface-usb-xhci.pdf) specifies at page 289 that
Interrupt Moderation allows multiple events to be processed in the context of a single Interrupt Service Request (ISR), rather than generating an ISR for each event.The interrupt generation that results from the assertion of the Interrupt Pending (IP) flag may be throttled by the settings of the Interrupter Moderation (IMOD) register of the associated Interrupter. The IMOD register consists of two 16-bit fields: the Interrupt Moderation Counter (IMODC) and the Interrupt Moderation Interval (IMODI).Software may use the IMOD register to limit the rate of delivery of interrupts to the host CPU. This register provides a guaranteed inter-interrupt delay between the interrupts of an Interrupter asserted by the host controller, regardless of USB traffic conditions.The following algorithm converts the inter-interrupt interval value to the common 'interrupts/sec' performance metric:
Interrupts/sec = (250×10-9sec × IMODI) -1
For example, if the IMODI is programmed to 512, the host controller guarantees the host will not be interrupted by the xHC for at least 128 microseconds from the last interrupt. The maximum observable interrupt rate from the xHC should not exceed 8000 interrupts/sec.Inversely, inter-interrupt interval value can be calculated as:
Inter-interrupt interval = (250×10-9sec × interrupts/sec) -1
The optimal performance setting for this register is very system and configuration specific. An initial suggested range for the moderation Interval is 651-5580 (28Bh -15CCh). The IMODI field shall default to 4000 (1 ms.) upon initialization and reset. It may be loaded with an alternative value by software when the Interrupter is initialized
USB works alongside the xHCI to provide interrupts to the system. I'm not a hardware engineer but I would say that the interrupt speed depends on the mouse frequency. For example this mouse: https://www.amazon.ca/Programmable-PICTEK-Computer-Customized-Breathing/dp/B01G8W30BY/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=usb+gaming+mouse&qid=1610137924&s=electronics&sr=1-4, has a frequency of 125HZ to 1000HZ. It probably means that you will get a interrupt frequency of 125/s to 1000/s since the mouse has this frequency. Its optical sensor will check the surface that the mouse is on at this frequency providing an interrupt for a movement.
As to interrupts themselves, I think it depends on the speed of the CPU. Interrupts are masked for a short amount of time while handling. The fastest the CPU, the fastest the interrupt will be unmasked, the fastest a new interrupt can occur. I would say the bottleneck here is the mouse with 1000 interrupts/s, that is 1 interrupt/ms.
