Embodiments of a system and method for handling interrupts are described herein. In an embodiment interrupts from various client components in a system (also referred to as clients) are processed by an interrupt handler component uniformly. The various clients signal interrupts in different manners. For example, some clients signal interrupts in a level-based manner, and some clients signal interrupts in a pulse-based manner. In an embodiment, all interrupts received by the interrupt handler are formed into an event message according to a uniform format regardless of the manner in which the interrupt is signaled. The event message includes all information necessary for a host processor interrupt service routine (ISR) to service the interrupts without reading hardware registers. Event messages are stored in an event buffer for access and handling by the host. The event buffer is managed by the interrupt handler.