ABEND

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abbr. Computer Science
abnormal end of task

(ABnormal END) Pronounced "ahb-end." An unexpected termination that causes the computer to stop responding. An abend occurs either when the computer is presented with instructions or data it cannot recognize, or a program tries to address memory beyond a defined boundary. Abends are generally the result of erroneous software logic in the application or operating system (see anomaly).

Crash, Freeze, Lock Up and Hang

All the terms above refer to a program coming to an abnormal end; however, a "crash" occurs when the computer issues a "fault" and deliberately halts that line of execution. The terms "freeze," "lock up" or "hang" may refer to software that is actually still running but has erroneously wound up in an endless, internal loop that renders the program useless. In practice, the terms "crash," "freeze," "lock up" and "hang" are used synonymously. See infinite loop.

Bad Hardware Can Look Like Bad Software

A serious hardware failure will stop a computer that has no redundant components. For example, a short circuit on the motherboard will halt the operation; however, a failing memory cell can cause an instruction to point to an erroneous location, making it look like a software failure.

It Depends on the OS

If the abend occurs due to a bug in an application and the operating system is not resilient, the computer locks up and has to be rebooted. Modern operating systems attempt to halt only the offending application and allow the remaining applications to continue. As operating systems evolve through the years, they become more bug-free themselves and more tolerant of application bugs, and there is less rebooting when an application stops working. However, all operating systems are not 100% foolproof, and bad applications do cause operating systems to crash; a major motivation for virtualizing computers (see virtualization and virtual machine).

A Miracle It All Works

If you consider what goes on inside a computer, you might wonder why it does not crash more often. An ordinary home computer can easily have 16 billion memory cells. Every second, millions of them switch their status between charged and uncharged (1 to 0; 0 to 1). If only one cell fails, it can cause an instruction to be invalid, and an abend can occur. See GPF and head crash.

Abending

The green blocks are machine instructions executed by the computer one after the other until a branch (jump) instruction breaks the sequence and points to an instruction elsewhere in the program. Abending (crashing, hanging, etc.) occurs when the program erroneously points outside of its address space typically due to bad logic.

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Acronym for abnormal ending or termination of a computer program. An abend can result from a computer program error, an operator error, or a machine malfunction.

[ABnormal END]

1. Abnormal termination (of software); crash; lossage. Derives from an error message on the IBM 360; used jokingly by hackers but seriously mainly by code grinders. Usually capitalized, but may appear as ‘abend’. Hackers will try to persuade you that ABEND is called abend because it is what system operators do to the machine late on Friday when they want to call it a day, and hence is from the German Abend = ‘Evening’.

2. [alt.callahans] Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation — used in the subject lines of postings warning friends of an imminent loss of Internet access. (This can be because of computer downtime, loss of provider, moving or illness.) Variants of this also appear: ABVND = ‘Absent By Voluntary Net Deprivation’ and ABSEND = ‘Absent By Self-Enforced Net Deprivation’ have been sighted.

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is short for:

Abnormal End

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - unormal afbrydelse

Français (French)
n. - interruption anormale

Deutsch (German)
n. - (Comp.) abnormale Beendigung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (Η/Υ) αντικανονικός τερματισμός

Español (Spanish)
n. - (informática) interrupción anormal (de un programa, rutina, etc.), aborto

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - onormalt avbrott

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
异常中止, 异常结束

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 異常中止, 異常結束

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 이상 종료(컴퓨터)

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) إنقطاع غير إعتيادي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הפרעה לא-נורמלית‬

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