Row of bombs
Encyclopedia
Atari TOS
TOS is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520 and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines were developed using a new version of TOS, called MultiTOS, which allowed multitasking...
-based systems, such as the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, used a row of bombs to indicate a critical system error. The number of bombs displayed revealed information about the occurred error. The error (also called an exception
Exception handling
Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions, special conditions that change the normal flow of program execution....
) is reported by the Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
. The very first version of TOS used mushroom cloud
Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
s which was quickly changed, as it was considered politically incorrect
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
.
- 1 bomb: Reset, Initial PC2
- 2 bombs: Bus Error
- 3 bombs: Address Error
- 4 bombs: Illegal Instruction
- 5 bombs: Zero Divide
- 6 bombs: CHK Instruction
- 7 bombs: TRAPV Instruction
- 8 bombs: Privilege Violation
- 9 bombs: Trace
- 10 bombs: Line 1010 Emulator
- 11 bombs: Line 1111 Emulator
- 12–13 bombs: [unassigned, reserved]
- 14 bombs: Format Error
- 15 bombs: Uninitialized Interrupt Vector
- 16–23 bombs: [unassigned, reserved]
- 24 bombs: Spurious Interrupt
- 25 bombs: Level 1 Interrupt Autovector
- 26 bombs: Level 2 Interrupt Autovector
- 27 bombs: Level 3 Interrupt Autovector
- 28 bombs: Level 4 Interrupt Autovector
- 29 bombs: Level 5 Interrupt Autovector
- 30 bombs: Level 6 Interrupt Autovector
- 31 bombs: Level 7 Interrupt Autovector
- 32–47 bombs: Trap Instruction Vectors
- 48–63 bombs: [unassigned, reserved]
- 64–255 bombs: User Interrupt Vectors