In a computer or

data transmission Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point o ...

system, a reset clears any pending errors or events and brings a system to normal condition or an initial state, usually in a controlled manner. It is usually done in response to an error condition when it is impossible or undesirable for a processing activity to proceed and all error recovery mechanisms fail. A

computer storage Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processing unit (CPU) of a comput ...

program would normally perform a "reset" if a command times out and error recovery schemes like retry or abort also fail. Most computers have a reset line that brings the device into the startup state and is active for a short time after powering on. For example, in the x86 architecture, asserting the RESET line halts the CPU; this is done after the system is switched on and before the power supply has asserted "power good" to indicate that it is ready to supply stable voltages at sufficient power levels. Reset places less stress on the hardware than

power cycling Power cycling is the act of turning a piece of equipment, usually a computer, off and then on again. Reasons for power cycling include having an electronic device reinitialize its set of configuration parameters or recover from an unresponsive sta ...

, as the power is not removed. Many computers, especially older models, have user accessible "reset" buttons that assert the reset line to facilitate a system reboot in a way that cannot be trapped (i.e. prevented) by the operating system. Out-of-band management also frequently provides the possibility to reset the remote system in this way. Many memory-capable digital circuits ( flip-flops, registers, counters and so on) accept the reset signal that sets them to the pre-determined state. This signal is often applied after powering on but may also be applied under other circumstances. The ability for an electronic device to be able to reset itself in case of error or abnormal power loss is an important aspect of

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...

design and programming. This ability can be observed with everyday electronics such as a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

, audio equipment or the electronics of a car, which are able to function as intended again even after having lost power suddenly. A sudden and strange error with a device might sometimes be fixed by removing and restoring power, making the device reset. Some devices, such as

portable media player A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored ...

s, very often have a dedicated reset button as they are prone to freezing or locking up. The lack of a proper reset ability could otherwise possibly render the device useless after a power loss or malfunction. A

soft reset In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is phy ...

is performed by restarting system software without resetting the hardware. is also a Windows Terminal Server command. The syntax is RESET . In addition, is a BSD/

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

command to restore a console to a normal state. This command is an alias of the terminal initialization command.OpenBSD Reference Manual:
openbsd.org, 28 December 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2018 Similar commands include: stty sane setterm -reset

References

{{Authority control Computing terminology

See also

References