deadbeef

2 definitions found

deadbeef - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  DEADBEEF
  
     <convention, storage> /ded-beef/ The hexadecimal pattern
     used to fill words of freshly allocated memory under a number
     of IBM environments including the RS/6000; equal to
     decimal 3,735,928,559 (unsigned) or -559,038,737 (32-bit
     signed).  As in "Your program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone,
     aborted, flushed from memory).
  
     (1998-06-29)
  

deadbeef - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  DEADBEEF
   /ded.beef/, n.
  
     The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory under
  a
     number of IBM environments, including the RS/6000. Some modern
     debugging tools deliberately fill freed memory with this value as a
     way of converting heisenbugs into Bohr bugs. As in "Your program
     is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory); if you
     start from an odd half-word boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD.
     See also the anecdote under fool and dead beef attack.