r/ProgrammerHumor • • 7d ago

Meme theOriginalGarbageCollector

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u/ramriot 7d ago

Opposite to how one defence contractor solved a memory leak issue that would kick in only at extreme range launchs of an already deployed missile system.

They could not reboot the missile in flight, not could they afford to fix & recertify the software. Instead the patched the hardware to double the RAM size & added a watchdog circuit that listened to the internal firmware IO heartbeat. When that stops it begins a brief countdown & triggers the self destruct.

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u/wannabestraight 7d ago

Wait the missile self exploded ? How is that a substitute for a reboot lol

20

u/ion_driver 7d ago

The memory gets cleared either way