• HCF Halt and Catch Fire

    From August Abolins@2:221/360 to All on Sun May 10 21:09:08 2020
    I just learned of this series:

    Halt and Catch Fire is an American period drama television series... aired on the cable network AMC in the United States from June 1, 2014, to October 14, 2017, spanning four seasons and 40 episodes...
    ....Taking place over a period of more than ten years, the series depicts a fictionalized insider's view of the personal computer revolution of the 1980s and the growth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. The show's title refers to computer machine code instruction Halt and Catch Fire (HCF), the execution of which would cause the computer's central processing unit to stop working (catch fire being a humorous exaggeration).

    It sounds very interesting for a computer nerd.

    Has anyone else here seen it?

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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to AUGUST ABOLINS on Sun May 10 18:51:00 2020
    @MSGID: <5EB84FBA.883.clascomp@capitolcityonline.net>
    I just learned of this series:

    It sounds very interesting for a computer nerd.

    Has anyone else here seen it?

    Yes, I enjoyed it... the episodes about the technical stuff more than some
    of the others that get more into the interpersonal stuff. That is also
    good TV but I really got into their push to build a PC and some of their
    later endeavors.

    Mike

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  • From John Riley@1:229/981 to August Abolins on Wed May 13 13:05:23 2020

    instruction Halt and Catch Fire (HCF), the execution of which would
    cause the computer's central processing unit to stop working (catch fire

    Yep, specifically on the 6800 series CPU's.

    Has anyone else here seen it?

    Just starting watching it again during my morning excercises :)

    Cheers
    J

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  • From August Abolins@2:221/360 to Mike Powell on Thu May 14 05:31:46 2020
    On 5/10/2020 6:51 PM, between "Mike Powell : AUGUST ABOLINS":

    Yes, I enjoyed it... the episodes about the technical stuff
    more than some of the others that get more into the
    interpersonal stuff. That is also good TV but I really got
    into their push to build a PC and some of their later
    endeavors.

    I dragged myself through episode 3 (1st season). There was stuff in there that seemed unnecessary and a bit of a distraction.

    I think it was in episode 2 that the ex-IBM guy convinces the engineer to use his own money to buy the computer equipment for reverse engineering. I found that unrealistic. The ex-IBM guy is surely still quite wealthy (fancy car, fancy apartment, fancy clothes, etc..) Yet, it is the family-man who has to come up with the money for the computer equipment? That made little sense.

    The production values feel like a low-budget Canadian series. I can look past that and focus on the tech/engineering elements. I read that things pick up nicely in ep 4 and onward.

    Except for using the early unix-based networked computers on campus, my first use of a PC was a genuine IBM PC in my first professional job in 1993. But even there, I primarily worked with a DEC VAX 11 machine. I had a shared terminal parked just outside my cubicle intended to be split between 5 people.
    Honestly, I can't remember what I needed to use it for except to lookup or print some basic reports based on parts inventory. Boring! But I did help some people "fix" their report programs when they needed a special feature.

    A couple years later, I had a 286/AT AMD based. I started goofing around with RBBS BBS software on that.

    But I digress..

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  • From August Abolins@2:221/360 to August Abolins on Thu May 14 05:49:09 2020
    On 5/13/2020 10:31 PM, between "August Abolins : Mike Powell":

    On 5/10/2020 6:51 PM, between "Mike Powell : AUGUST ABOLINS":

    Except for using the early unix-based networked computers on campus,
    my first use of a PC was a genuine IBM PC in my first professional
    job in 1993.

    CORRECTION. I meant, "1983" I hate using the top row of keys for the numbers! I tend to overcompensate and miss.

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  • From Tony Langdon@3:633/410 to John Riley on Thu May 14 14:11:00 2020
    On 05-13-20 13:05, John Riley wrote to August Abolins <=-

    instruction Halt and Catch Fire (HCF), the execution of which would
    cause the computer's central processing unit to stop working (catch fire

    Yep, specifically on the 6800 series CPU's.

    I had heard that the originel Intel 4004 had a HCF instruction that effectively
    shorted +5V to GND via the CPU, letting the magic smoke out. :) It was a design flaw, not an intentional "self destruct" instruction caused by the CPU's
    logic gates being put into an inintended state, when a certain undocumented (and unintended!) instruction was executed.

    There are references to this on the Internet, but it's hard to tell how much truth is in it.


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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to AUGUST ABOLINS on Thu May 14 17:16:00 2020
    I dragged myself through episode 3 (1st season). There was stuff in there that
    seemed unnecessary and a bit of a distraction.

    There is a lot of stuff like, too. IIRC, it almost did not come back for a second season.

    I think it was in episode 2 that the ex-IBM guy convinces the engineer to use >s own money to buy the computer equipment for reverse engineering. I found that
    unrealistic. The ex-IBM guy is surely still quite wealthy (fancy car, fancy ap
    rtment, fancy clothes, etc..) Yet, it is the family-man who has to come up with
    the money for the computer equipment? That made little sense.

    If I remember right, it makes sense later.

    The production values feel like a low-budget Canadian series. I can look past
    hat and focus on the tech/engineering elements. I read that things pick up nic
    ly in ep 4 and onward.

    Yes, it does do that. It may have been a partially Canadian production,
    come to think of it. A lot of the US cable shows are.

    Except for using the early unix-based networked computers on campus, my first >e of a PC was a genuine IBM PC in my first professional job in 1993. But even
    here, I primarily worked with a DEC VAX 11 machine. I had a shared terminal pa
    ked just outside my cubicle intended to be split between 5 people. Honestly, >can't remember what I needed to use it for except to lookup or print some basic
    reports based on parts inventory. Boring! But I did help some people "fix" th
    ir report programs when they needed a special feature.

    I got an 8088 XT clone around Christmas, 1987. My first on the job
    experience with computers would have come about a year later, working in a library, with some terminal system that ran on who knows what. :)

    A couple years later, I had a 286/AT AMD based. I started goofing around with
    RBBS BBS software on that.

    RBBS is supposedly open source now (may have been then, too). I have
    thought about playing around with it some one day, but never seem to get
    around to it.

    Mike

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  • From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to AUGUST ABOLINS on Thu May 14 19:15:00 2020
    CORRECTION. I meant, "1983" I hate using the top row of keys for the number
    ! I tend to overcompensate and miss.

    LOL I prefer the number pad also. :)

    Mike


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  • From John Riley@1:229/981 to Tony Langdon on Sat May 16 09:52:50 2020
    I had heard that the originel Intel 4004 had a HCF instruction that effectively shorted +5V to GND via the CPU, letting the magic smoke out.

    Ah, never heard of it being on the 4004.

    Cheers!
    j

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  • From Tony Langdon@3:633/410 to John Riley on Sun May 17 14:06:00 2020
    On 05-16-20 09:52, John Riley wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

    I had heard that the originel Intel 4004 had a HCF instruction that effectively shorted +5V to GND via the CPU, letting the magic smoke out.

    Ah, never heard of it being on the 4004.

    I heard it many years afo, while I was at university, I believe (i.e. before the Internet), but there are references on the Internet, though none I'd call clearly verifiable.


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  • From August Abolins@2:221/360 to Mike Powell on Sun May 17 08:50:07 2020
    On 5/14/2020 5:16 PM, between "Mike Powell : AUGUST ABOLINS":

    I dragged myself through episode 3 (1st season). There was stuff in there that
    seemed unnecessary and a bit of a distraction.

    There is a lot of stuff like, too. IIRC, it almost did not come back for second season.

    I can probably see why. It probably caters to a very narrow demographic.

    I really enjoyed the episode were the principal BIOS programmer loses the backups due to a degaussing and the panic that ensued.


    A couple years later, I had a 286/AT AMD based. I started
    goofing around with RBBS BBS software on that.

    RBBS is supposedly open source now (may have been then,
    too). I have thought about playing around with it some one
    day, but never seem to get around to it.

    I started using it when it was included as a file in one of the computer magazines I picked on the magazine stand. Or, may it was something you could mailorder - I don't recall exactly. Or maybe it was via download on Compuserve.

    Anyway, RBBS-PC was available with source right from the very beginning. I really enjoyed modding it and compiling it. The official mods where well managed distros too.

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