When the kernel encounters behavior that is uncorrectable and will cause irreparable harm to the running system or, even worse, corrupt data, the system will voluntarily tap out using the panic system call to get the system down quickly, hopefully leaving a core dump in its wake for post-mortem analysis.In this blog entry we'll discuss core dumps and panic's in general. In part 2 we'll discuss a tool to make life just a little easier, the Solaris Crash Analysis Tool, or "Solaris CAT".