Talk:Halt and Catch Fire/PaulChowRichardCavell
Conversation 1:
Hi Richard
Amazing that this is still a topic of conversation. I can categorically attest that it was a joke. I wrote the manual and I am the source of it. Don't know how else to document it!
BTW, it was not the same team as developed MIPS (Stanford) or MIPS-R (MIPS Co.). There was one student who was part of all the teams at some point and John Hennessy.
pc
Paul,
I just want to clarify what's happened with this. I've attempted to modify the Wikipedia page to establish once and for all that it's a joke, but the standard for inclusion on Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. I attempted to cite my personal correspondence with you, but they're not having it.
The problem is, of course, that it's not obvious that it's a joke, and there is at least some credibility behind the concept of an assembly instruction that would cause a chip to literally combust.
Richard
Original Message -----
From: Paul Chow
Sent: 07/10/10 10:05 PM
To: richardcavell@mail.com
Subject: Re: MIPS-X Hi Richard > You describe in the programmer's manual of the MIPS-X that there's a > 'Halt and Spontaneously Combust' instruction on NSA versions of the > chip. > > Just for the record, is this a joke or does it describe a genuine > feature of the chip? Yes, it is a joke. Having come from Canada and then working on a DARPA-sponsored project, I figured this was an appropriate "feature". Surprisingly, this made the rounds in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPS-X and Reddit (google reddit mips-x) and a few other forums a few years ago. I was alerted to this and explained it at that time. The wikipedia entry was updated but that has since disappeared. I guess someone preferred the "mystery" of leaving it unclear :-) pc
Conversation 2:
Hi Richard
The problem is that Wikipedia likes verifiability (sourcing) rather than truth. I'm going to start a discussion on Wikipedia about it. Because the "halt and catch fire" has elements of silliness as well as reality, I think we need to sort this out.
Should I publish another paper to clarify? :-)
Would you be offended if I post our email conversation to other Wikipedia editors or otherwise online?
No problem. I prefer "truth".
pc
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