DEADBEEF

2 definitions found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  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 {heisenbug}s into {Bohr bug}s. 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}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  DEADBEEF
       
           /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)