Episode
Episode 168 - Halt and Catch Fire
- Podcast
- Advent of Computing
- Published
- Oct 19, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1605
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/advent-of-computing-497186/episodes/episode-168-halt-and-catch-fire/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/advent-of-computing-497186/episode-168-halt-and-catch-fire.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Imagine a secret number that could be used to bring your computer to a screeching halt. In 1977 Gerry Wheeler discovered an interesting feature of Motorola's new 6800 microprocessor. There was a secret instruction that, if read, would cause the processor to stop working. He called this magic number Halt and Catch Fire, or HCF, and wrote a neat article about the operation. This was the first time the public would learn about the secret powers of HCF, but this isn't actually the beginning of the story. When it comes to HCF things are more complicated than that... but only a little bit!