Halt and Catch Fire (computing)
SEVERAL COMPUTER MACHINE CODE INSTRUCTIONS THAT CAUSE A COMPUTER'S CPU TO HALT
Halt and Catch Fire (HCF); Stop and Catch Fire; Halt and catch fire (computing); HCF (computing); Drop dead (computing); Drop Dead (computing)
In computer engineering, Halt and Catch Fire, known by the assembly mnemonic HCF, is an idiom referring to a computer machine code instruction that causes the computer's central processing unit (CPU) to cease meaningful operation, typically requiring a restart of the computer. It originally referred to a fictitious instruction in IBM System/360 computers (introduced in 1964), making a joke about its numerous non-obvious instruction mnemonics.