DEADBEEF

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

DEADBEEF
 /ded.beef/, n.

   The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory under a
   number of IBM environments, including the RS/6000. Some modern
   debugging tools deliberately fill freed memory with this value as a
   way of converting {heisenbug}s into {Bohr bug}s. As in "Your program
   is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory); if you
   start from an odd half-word boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD.
   See also the anecdote under {fool} and {dead beef attack}.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

DEADBEEF

   <convention, storage> /ded-beef/ The {hexadecimal} pattern
   used to fill words of freshly allocated memory under a number
   of {IBM} environments including the {RS/6000}; equal to
   decimal 3,735,928,559 (unsigned) or -559,038,737 (32-bit
   signed).  As in "Your program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone,
   aborted, flushed from memory).

   (1998-06-29)