The Copper can access some special-purpose registers all of the time, some registers only when a special control bit is set to a 1, and some registers not at all. The registers that the Copper can always affect are numbered $80 through $FF inclusive. (See Appendix B for a list of registers in address order.) Those it cannot affect at all are numbered $00 to $3E inclusive. The Copper control register is within this group ($00 to $3E). The rest of the registers, from $40 to $7E, are protected by a bit in the Copper control register. In the Copper control register, called COPCON, only bit 1 is currently in use by the system. This bit, called CDANG (for Copper Danger Bit) protects all registers numbered between $40 and $7E inclusive. This range includes the blitter control registers. When CDANG is 0, these registers cannot be written by the Copper. When CDANG is 1, these registers can be written by the Copper. Preventing the Copper from accessing the blitter control registers prevents a runaway Copper (caused by a poorly formed instruction list) from accidentally affecting system memory. Warning: -------- Keep in mind that the CDANG bit is cleared after a reset.