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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!orca!mako!seifert
From: seifert@mako.UUCP (Snoopy)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: HCF
Message-ID: <644@mako.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 23:19:27 EST
Article-I.D.: mako.644
Posted: Thu Mar 14 23:19:27 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Mar-85 01:23:14 EST
References: <796@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: seifert@mako.UUCP (Snoopy)
Organization: The Daisy Hill Puppy Farm
Lines: 22
Keywords: halt and catch fire
Summary: 

In article <796@ecsvax.UUCP> cjl@ecsvax.UUCP (Charles Lord) writes:
>
>HCF was and is alive and well on the 6800. The instruction
>(HALT and catch fire) is only an expression, and does not
>make the chip burn as some have suggested.

The way I heard it (sounds like net.jokes, no?) was that there
were some leftover opcodes which were set to "don't care" when
the logic was designed.  There was one of these that would
cause the chip to get *real* hot if you managed to execute it,
say, by executing your data.  I suspect this is where the "halt
and catch fire" thing got started.


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