Kernel panic
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A kernel panic is a message displayed by an operating system upon detecting an internal system error from which it cannot recover. Kernel panics often provide cryptic debugging information that is useful only to the developers of the operating system.
Attempts by the operating system to read an invalid or unpermitted memory address are a common source of kernel panics. A panic may also occur as a result of a hardware failure.
The kernel panic was introduced in an early version of Unix, and demonstrated a major difference between the design philosophies of Unix and its predecessor Multics. Multics developer Tom van Vleck recalls a discussion of this change with Unix developer Dennis Ritchie:
I remarked to Dennis that easily half the code I was writing in Multics was error recovery code. He said, "We left all that stuff out. If there's an error, we have this routine called panic, and when it is called, the machine crashes, and you holler down the hall, 'Hey, reboot it.'" [1] (http://www.multicians.org/unix.html)
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Kernel Panic (http://ubersoft.net/kpanic/index.html) is also the name of a web comic by Christopher B. Wright. The comic revolves around a group of unix and linux server admins ordered to change the server farm over to Nifty Doorways (a parody of the Windows operating system.).fi:kernel panic fr:Panique du noyau