[dvt]

I know you're replying to a brand new (likely troll) account, but I'm also very confused by this and would be curious to learn if there's any truth to it. I personally don't really see what a Von Neumann machine has to do with null pointers (or how an implication would go either way), but maybe I'm missing something.

[tptacek]

It has nothing to do with NULL pointers and is instead a property of a programming language.

[z3512]

NULL pointers working the way they do was a design decision made my hardware engineers a long time ago because it saved some transistors when that mattered. We’re past that point now for most ASICs and hardware can be changed. Although backward software compatibility is a thing too.

[wizzwizz4]

Null pointers have nothing to do with the instruction set architecture, except as far as they are often represented by the value 0. Can you describe the scheme you're imagining, whereby their use saves transistors?