A collection of articles on kernel internals, please add to this

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRQ level
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IRQ level (IRQL) is a per-processor state in ReactOS used to coordinate
execution between ISRs and between threads. There are several levels

       PASSIVE_LEVEL, APC_LEVEL: The normal level for user mode and most
       kernel mode code. At the moment APC_LEVEL is unused.
       
       DISPATCH_LEVEL: At this level all irqs are still allowed but thread
       rescheduling on the current processor is disabled. This is used by
       the spinlock synchronization primitive to implement its uniprocessor
       semantics (multiprocessor is more complex). It is also used for some
       other forms of synchronization, DPCs for example. Many APIs are
       unavailable at this IRQL, usually those that might have to wait. It
       is recommended that you don't spend too much time at this IRQL 
       otherwise system responsiveness will be reduced.
       
       > DISPATCH_LEVEL: Each irq is assigned a priority (which will be 
       greater than DISPATCH_LEVEL). At an irq's priority level that irq,
       lower priority irqs and thread rescheduling are disabled. Higher
       priority irqs can still run. Very few APIs are available at IRQLs
       greater than DISPATCH_LEVEL.
       
       HIGH_LEVEL: All irqs are disabled.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DPCs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is a design goal not to spend too much time in ISRs, for this reason
ISRs should postpone most processing till it can run at a lower IRQL. The
mechanism for this is a Deferred Procedure Call (DPC). When a DPC object is
created, it is associated with a function. The DPC object can then be inserted
in the DPC queue from an ISR. If the IRQL on return from the ISR is less than
DISPATCH_LEVEL the DPC queue will be drained, otherwise this will happen when
the IRQL level drops below DISPATCH_LEVEL or the processor becomes idle. When
the DPC queue is drained each DPC object is removed and the associated
function is called at DISPATCH_LEVEL. A DPC object can only be inserted once,
further insertions before it is removed will have no effect. 
