Halt and Catch Fire
<humour, processor> (HCF) Any of several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known architectures going as far back as the IBM 360. The Motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an HCF opcode became widely known. This instruction caused the processor to toggle a subset of the bus lines as rapidly as it could; in some configurations this could actually cause lines to burn up. [Confirm?] (1995-12-14) | ||||
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Halt and Catch Fire definition was found in categories: Language, Idioms & Slang(1) Encyclopedia(1)
Halt and Catch Fire Definition from Language, Idioms & Slang Dictionaries & Glossaries
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halt and catch fire
halt and catch fire
(hcf) any of several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known architectures going as far back as the ibm 360. the motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an hcf opcode became widely known. this instruction caused the processor to toggle a subset of the bus lines as rapidly as it could; in some configurations this could actually cause lines to burn up.
halt and catch fire
(hcf) any of several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known architectures going as far back as the ibm 360. the motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an hcf opcode became widely known. this instruction caused the processor to toggle a subset of the bus lines as rapidly as it could; in some configurations this could actually cause lines to burn up.
Halt and Catch Fire Definition from Encyclopedia Dictionaries & Glossaries
| Wikipedia English - The Free Encyclopedia |
Halt and Catch Fire
Halt and Catch Fire, known by the mnemonic HCF, was originally a fictitious computer machine code instruction claimed to be under development at IBM for use in their System/360 computers, along with many other amusing instructions such as "Execute Operator".
In modern practice, HCF denotes an undocumented machine code instruction with unusual side-effects, included in the processor for test purposes. The old "Halt and Catch Fire" instruction and HCF mnemonic were appropriated by users who discovered these instructions as a humorous way of expressing that the unintended execution of such an instruction causes the system to fail to perform its normal functions, while nevertheless appearing quite busy. The expression "catch fire" is strictly metaphorical.
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