I'm using the word "crash" in the sense that a computer system that has
ceased to operate correctly is said to have crashed, at least insofar as
all the developers I am aware of have used it (including myself).  In
this case, my meaning should be quite clear:  The graphics driver
encounters a condition which it cannot rectify and ceases to correctly
function with the violent consequence of having to reboot the system
without saving any data.  I suspect that if the GPU locked up, I would
not even be able to see the dmesg output when I switch to the VT,
because the GPU would be unable to execute further instructions to draw
(and further, if that were the case, it would probably act like my
system with the NVIDIA chipset, where the GPU locking up causes the
kernel to subsequently lock up, making even the magic sysrq key fail to
work, thus requiring a reset or power-cycle to get back up and running).

Software can and does crash without detecting that it crashed.

As an aside, things are so far so good running:

 Linux fennel 2.6.32-02063211-generic #02063211 SMP Mon Apr 12 12:03:56
UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

>From the mainline packages.  I'll comment back in several hours if it
hasn't yet crashed.

The only thing that I know is that there is no single activity that
occurs before it crashes; sometimes, it will crash just sitting still,
without having moved the mouse or switched windows or any of that.
Compiz is running on this system (the only aspect that I have tailored
of the UI is which fonts I use, not the effects or the extensiveness of
them).

-- 
ATI radeon KMS driver - gpu lockup
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568605
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