Crash a RISC machine from user-mode code:

[Doug McDonald]

In article <C:25L+ at xds13.ferranti.com> peter at ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1826 at mountn.dec.com> akhiani at ricks.enet.dec.com (Homayoon Akhiani) writes:
>> OK. Here is a quick summary of the HOW TO CRASH A RISC machine from
>> a USER-MODE program test. Reports have arrived that all of these machines
>> can be crashed using CRASHME.C:
>> IBM RT, MIPS, DECSTATION 5000, SPARC.
>
>> On the two CISC architectures tried, VAX/VMS and SUN-3, the program
>> either completed or exited with a core or register dump, as expected.
>
>On the 80386 in either 80386 protected mode or 80286 protected mode the
>program crashed the system. On the machine running in 80286 mode it was
>caught by the kernel debugger, but I was not able to restart and get a ^C
>in to stop the program before it crashed again.
>
>Ah, Intel. 


Ah Unix (presumably)!! Lets try **MSDOS** (386 mode):

>crashme 1000 10 200
BADBOY at 27472. 0x6b50
0
Abnormal Program Termination: Memory protection fault.
CS:EIP = 000c:00006B53

i.e. no crash. MicroWay NDPC compiler. To date, I have not ever had a crash
with either this compiler or their Fortran except after invoking
specific OS calls that specifically defeat protection (i.e. allowing me
to poke values into the kernal.)

Doug McDonald