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Computer Chips Exploding for Science
Judebert writes "While some may argue that any modern processor without a heat sink already exhibits this behavior, UCSD chemists have discovered that properly doped computer chips are actually explosive. Standard techniques are used, and they function just like normal computer chips.
Better yet, they burn clean, making them ideal for chemical analysis. The article sites other uses, such as micromachine propulsion and military explosives, but I imagine this woudl make for the ultimate in copy protection, as well: "Unauthorized copy detected. This system will self-destruct in 10... 9..."
Science Daily also has a copy."
7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.00000000198
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
I didnt know they put chips on harddrives and blank cds...
while true ; do /dev/cpu &
echo boom >
done
Chips just keep getting hotter & hotter....
time for everyone to go out and get their golden orbs & peltiers.... maybe wanna look into water cooling too.
Has Microsoft made a bid for the technology yet?
"Anonymous cowards are just K-whores afraid of their accounts being modded down." - Bob the O (me)
*boof*
:D I bet that this is a farily silly technology anyway!
Customer: My computer exploded!
Tech Support: Guess you have to get a new one.
Customer: Yeah! Here's $1000 for a new one!
Unethical computer manufacturers could get a lot of money out of this. And 1337 HAX0rZ can blow up people's computers.
Everything is mainstream now.
Reminds me of the time my phone line got hit by lightning.. I'd like to also state that all the little chips on modems tend to explode quite nicely too.
Microsoft would love to get this to work with XP's copy protection
As if airline restrictions weren't bad enough already, now my laptop will surely be considered a bomb!
You might use caution when using Science Daily's copy of this article, you never know what might pop up.
Great. Now we're going to have to comletely dismantle laptops, game boys, and talking Barney dolls before we are allowed to board flights.
Seriously, what are the possibilities of using this to cause life threatening explosions?
xxx straight edge xxx
All they did is find out that silicon combined with other materials is explosive. They have not made exploding chips yet. Still that would be a useful tool if They could control it and avoid the lawsuits. (and viruses. Think of a I Love You virus designed to destroy computer chips)
and i thought this was just bad trashy journalism.
so... when does slashdot get a bat boy story icon?
Great, now laptops will be banned in planes now.
Imagine overclocking these :D
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
I once made a microchip explode in lab when it came into contact with the contacts from a 560W DC power supply.
A corner of the chip 'chipped' off and left a mark in the desk when it he. Good thing I wasn't in the way.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I thought AMD already discovered this... --MonMotha
What, judging by the fact that intel.com gets more hits than baywatch.com?
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
So much for laptops and electrical devices on airplanes.
"Other possible security or military applications of this explosive might be the construction of information-collecting devices that self-destruct ..."
Let's just hope this doesn't happen until after Dubya gets out of the White House.
"How long until it self-destruc..." *BOOM*
Science finally explains all those years of exploding consoles in Star Trek!
null sig
This could be interesting in a secure smartcard type application. Any attempts to find out whats inside and it destroys itself.
This of course assumes that normal levels of static electricty won't set it off.
No matter how illegal my computer uses are, no one has the right to put an explosive device in my computer. There are still courts in this country, and it is up to those to decide if I did something illegal or not. Besides...
What if some weird random crash triggers it?
What if my CPU overheating triggered it?
What if me messing around with my hardware triggered it?
It would make a very cool anti-theft device, though.If someone stole my laptop when I wasnt looking I would very much rather blow it up than let the thief re-sell it.
Of course such an explosive would have to be very mild and not hurt anyone. I wouldnt like to become a murderer. But if it packed some ink, like money bags, it would help find the thief.
I was using a Harddrive that was just sitting on the desk. Stupid me set a paperclip or something on it, not thinking, and I was hit with hot shards of Silicon. It left a nasty little prick on my face for a while. THankgod it didn;t hit my eye.
Now I will not even get to take a laptop on an airline anymore...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
The article says that the explosion might be useful for analysing chemicals in-field, which I can see, even if explosions are fairly uncontrolled, but what's this with 'as a power source?'
I agree that things like modern engines work by having mini explosions that push pistons up/down etc., but *in general* explosions are not a very efficient way to power things. Witness the fact that the human body does not burn/explode glucose, but rather goes through aerobic respiration to oxidize it.
So, um, how exactly does this stuff get used in controlled explosions as a continuous power source?
You know, with more and more pocket PCs out there, airplanes are at risk.
:)
Two pen taps and the plane would go boom.
I think the government should regulate everything from Cell phones to Computers. Make it so everytime you go buy electronics, you must show your ID in order to purchase it; then interrogate the person if they don't have their card on them.
Energy source? The article said it produced a clean burning flame. Could the reaction be slowed down? Could we produce cheap energy from plentiful silicon?
I am not a lawyer. Do not take my words as legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult an attorney.
If it seems offtopic, you just don't understand.
I remember hearing a story about a switch. It seemed you turn this switch to either magic or more magic. This odd little switch had only one wire so it seemed odd that it could do anything. Yet, when it was switched down to magic the computer ran into some odd little problems. It never was explained (though a possible solution came out later) why this switch could work on only one wire. It was however, left in the more magic position.
(Uh oh, here comes the modstick...)
Security through promiscuity is no better than security through obscurity.
Planned obsoletion? You could always say the cooling failed, so the chip caught fire and sorry, it's out of warranty.
Doesn't AMD have a patent on silicon burning really fast...
ducks...
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
> chemists have discovered that properly doped computer chips are actually explosive.
And all this time I thought Sadam just liked playing video games
My friends and I have been doing experiments like this for years!
:-)
Finally modern science has decided to catch up
I COULD see somone shipping a new media device that burns itself after being played X times... This *is* the ultimate copy protection scheme.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
This gives a whole new meaning to 'fatal error'.
?-|||-----x<*))))><
"Your free evaluation period has expired. Register now or we'll make your PC explode."
I'm sure if this ever was put into normal CPUs, (which would be dumb) many a teenager would have some great after school fun by running into computer shops and seeing who can explode the most PCs.
Also, what kind of hsf would you have to use so it doesn't overheat and self-destruct ?
I'm anispeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.
Can you gear the chips to explode only after going through a certain set of logic gates? I mean, how useful is a self-destructing chip if it self destructs before its even used?
At any rate, I can definitely see this as incentive for me to get my password right within three tries./p>
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Over the years we've had to have laptops sent through the Xray machines in our bags, taken out of our bags and sent through on the conveyor by themselves, back in the bags but vertical so they don't mask other things, taken out and turned on, taken out and explained that this model doesn't use batteries so you can only turn it on if you can plug it in, and to do that you'll need to unplug their X-Ray machine because there aren't any outlets nearby, and they're making you take off your hats, coats, pagers, cellphones, radios, palmpilots, shoes, eyeglasses, belts, piercings, bluejeans with copper rivets in them, artificial hip joints, metal-braced lingerie, car keys, buttons with comments about government harassment, and shiny things in general.
I've had people at San Jose Airport ask me if my bag had a laptop in it - like DUUHHHH - this is San Jose, is there anybody here carrying a bag that *doesn't* have a laptop in it? If they want to ask if I've got an interesting laptop, fine :-) They don't seem to have figured out laser pointers yet... But if they even HEAR about exploding microprocessors, it won't be possible to travel at all.
At least I didn't have a laptop with me the time I was bringing my nephews a KG of Silly Putty in clear baggies with 500g each
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The silicon that they're talking about here is porous silicon, which has properties that are massively different than the bulk crystal. Current study on the material has found that it is an excellent emitter of both light and electrons.
The primary problem with this material is nobody understands it either chemically or physically. We have a list of stuff you can do with it, but no model to predict other effects.
This is pretty cool, though....
XeF4 is routinely used in the etching process. It sometimes forms XeF6 though, which is a contact explosive.
Now when Intel launches they're latest bomb, it will really be true!
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
This is not about exploding computer chips. This is about using the microlithography techniques and materials (silicon) from the chip industry to make electronically controlled micro-explosives. There is nothing here about making existing chips explode.
Just don't let Gene Simmons have them...
Runaway (1984)
No sig, sorry.
What a perfect thing for the military....
abandon the helicopter,aircraft,tank,spy vehicle? on the way out hit the destruct button... first the eeproms and all circuts explode then the vehicle leaving nothing behind for the enemy to reverse engineer...
Or better yet... instead of the musical greeting card.... the maiming greeting card.... for your ex's and last employer....
Oh wait... that's illegal... nevermind.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Of course, NeXTWORLD Editor Simson Garfinkel's quasi-sick obsession proved that it's not easy to light one of these cases up, but he hadn't reckoned with the awesome power of an exploding processor.
This is the first vaporware product that is literal!
Now imagine building silicon explosives into export equipment. Some fellow sitting back at CIA HQ launches Son of SirCam - within 12 hours, desktops all over Iraq are blowing up.
The ultimate Denial of Service attack.
. . . be a trend? First Batteries that catch on fire, and now exploding cpus? What will be exploding in the future?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I am a news photographer... one afternoon when a B-1 bomber went down in a Kentucky cow field, the plane exploded into tiny, tiny shreds. Thankfully, the pilot and the crew ejected and were unharmed. Unfortunately, several cows didn't make it.
One of the most interesting moments that followed in the media cavalcade happened a day later. A man drove out of the woods with a pickup and dropped off a large, man-sized bent piece of metal, which according to the DoD was the larest piece of the plane left. It was the heavy steel dash of the cockpit that holds the hundreds of tiny dials the pilots read. No dials, but a lot of steel.
Trust me, the DoD does its homework when it comes to keeping its avionics secret.
I have no doubt in my mind that our plane that got captured in China revealed as little as possible to the Chinese Gov't. I realistically believe that they learned very little from taking that plane apart. They certainly didn't get any software to run the equipment, that is for sure. And the software is the real heart of any surveilance system.
In answer to making microchips explode, I would believe there are much better, more certain ways of destroying microprocessors and leave no readable trace.
Your idea has good merit for tiny processors or espionage equipment, that isn't practical for carrying its own destruct. Its also a great idea for sabotage.
I'm afraid of what this could mean for future virii...
What happens when they put this kind of thing in consumer electronics to make it so that only a professional can repair something as simple as a game controller and then they just magically start going off for no reason? Can you say fire hazard?
My other sig is an import.
Think about it. A virus, spreading through Outlook (of course!) infects a computer. It spreads itself on, and then it destroys the CPU. It's beautiful...
Trust me, I've done research in the field of Porous Silicon. This explains quite a few mini-explosions that happened with my experiments though.
ALSO, it takes chilling the porous silicon down to LIQUID OXYGEN temperatures...yeah, so liquid oxygen is dangerous enough!
Readers of the finest news source in america have known this all along...
Okay, so it can blow up a CPU, but what about RAM, other chips on the motherboard, and hard disks?
Hard disks not so likely I guess.
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
Thats funny.
:)
When I was about 12(81 or so) my dad brought me slews of stuff from work to scrap parts off of, LONG story short he took all the lithium batteries on the boards I was given, several had them, their engineer had to pick shards of PCB ut of his arm after he shorted one, (This was beore they had an internal "breaker") ,
A couple of years ago I was short on cash so, I decided to sell my IMSAI , well I went to power it up to test it so I could say, "Working Condition"
Well shit started blowing everywhere, caps going off like firecrackers, kinda makes me wonder whats going to happen when I fire up my 386 in 20 years to show my son
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
...to the fabled HCF -- Halt and Catch Fire -- opcode.
-- Alastair
So what's the porno popup got to do with this topic??
Finally, we pitiful earthlings can build the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!
Lookout Marvin!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
You can read the original paper in Jan 2002 Advanced Materials.
The abstract is online: Scroll down to 38-41: Explosive Nanocrystalline Porous Silicon and Its Use in Atomic Emission Spectroscopy.
Can't read the full article tho', unless you subscribe...visit your local library and ask for it.
--Tim
I had a friend that said that his computer was smoking just before he wasnt able to get it to boot up again. I didnt believe him, cuz, well what does he know. Probally just dust. When I took a look at the hardware I noticed that the HardDrive wasnt being detected on any computer I installed it on. Turns out that one of the chips on the bottem of it was scorched.
Strange stuff if you ask me.
See the forbiden post Here
"So what's the porno popup got to do with this topic??"
nothing at all - in fact, i don't even see them, since i click "no" when konqueror asks me if i want to allow a javascript popup to open or not.
the fucking enormous image in the middle of the page, on the other hand, is relevant in a humorous way.
If explosive (but working) computer chips can now be created, how long will it be before laptops are banned on airplanes? The old "turn on your laptop and prove it works" routine won't exactly be enough to prove that the computer doesn't contain explosive components anymore.
"It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe."
Have you ever tried running ms office on a 386? If flying ISA bus doesn't get you the serial mouse will.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Intel and AMD should agree to configure their chips to explode after, say, 30 minutes of running any Linux distro.
This would be their bit to improve the gene pool..you know, a eugenics kind of thing.
-----
This copy of Windows has already been activated on another computer. Self-destruct sequence activated.
We hope Hell is where you wanted to go today.
Sincerely,
The Microsoft Windows Team
-----
'This e-mail is sent you as warning from Bill Gates about the new ChipDet computer virus
It is very serious an if not detected can cause your computer chip to explode, which will also explode your computer.
Please forward this on to everybody you know as soon as possible. Remember this is very important."
:)
Your Family Is In Danger!
Really give the term Blue Screen of Death a new meaning.
Computer crashed? Well, you better get the hell out of the room.
The BSOD is always the last thing you see.
Kernel oops? oops, pick your case out of your stomach.
[i know this doesn't work on existing chips... but I couldn't help it]
Get your Unix fortune now!
Many years ago, we would use thermite "bombs" on top of the racks of sensative equipment> I was never in a hostile situation that required Emergancy Destruction, but I had buddies who had. I hear it was quite spectaculare when one would be set off. Anouther piece of tactical equipment had a mark to indicate where a .38 or larger caliber round could be shot to destroy all of the relevent circuitry. Shooting the equipment has got to be a lot more fun then sending a stupid code or flipping a swithch.
Its copy protected!? I didnt notice! =D
...to anyone who's ever put a Ceramic EPROM in the programmer backwards.
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
... I saw exploding chips in sophomore EE lab. The best one had bits of ceramic package and chip leads in every corner of the room. "Let me show you again how to set the current limit on that power supply." says the prof.
So basically, if you want to try this at home kids, get a few junk jumbo LEDs, a 5 volt non-switching power supply, and if you're smart, a nailboard to pop them from a distance.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
I haven't seen this happen much, but a chip can blow its lid too. The best example I have seen is an old Colecovision that must have been hit with a surge from lightning. A third of the chips in that thing had popped their tops, and one capacitor was very singed. But LEDs are still much easier to explode than chips.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Give him some karma....this should have made it up the first time around.
virtros
Worst. Sig. Ever.
Heh. Finally, the fabled machine code operators can be implemented...
HCF - Halt and Catch Fire
XOI - Execute Operator Immediately
From the article:
"Let's say you have a computer chip collecting information on the ground and 10 minutes later you want it to flip over, or self destruct, or ignite so that it will show up on an infrared or night-vision camera," says Sailor. "What we've shown in this paper is that a small voltage can be used to ignite this chip, so you don't need any devices other than the tiny voltages you already have flowing through the electronic circuits of the chip. You just need to send them through the part of the chip that contains the blasting cap."
"Other possible security or military applications of this explosive might be the construction of information-collecting devices that self-destruct. "Let's say you've built a secret electronic device that you don't want someone to take apart or to find out how it works," says Sailor. "You could build a self-destruct mechanism into the computer chip that would basically destroy it and any information that had been stored on it."
It is as much fun to watch as the undergrad at MSU who hooked up the 117VAC to an Interdata open chassis computer (sans intervention of that pesky DC powersupply) and blew neat conical pieces of ceramic out of most of the chips on the exposed processor card. :-)
Now that was a "cluster" bomb.
ROTFLOL at fond memories from days long past (well it seems long past at least)
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
You think that Intel will expand their chips into the fireworks industry
This also sounds like a good way for Microcrap and Intel to make a computer set up, distrubuted through dell running windows xp so when it registers if they key is duplicated the whole damn thing burns up and your fucked
I guess that would make it any other dell set up
Apparently unscrupulous individuals have already put this technology to use.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
During my destructive years as a geeky youngster, I discovered that nearly all computer chips are capable of violent explosion. All you need is a screwdriver.
Take your computer's AC cord. Cut off the end that plugs into the computer.
Strip the wires.
Wrap one wire around the computer's chassis somewhere.
Wrap the other wire around a long screwdriver.
Plug it in, and then run the screwdriver up and down all the chips. Stick it in the slots, press it into the power connectors, jam it into the serial port. It's loads of fun - the chips actually explode! Don't wear safety glasses.
Don't just toss that old 286... blow it up first!
Just in time use with implantable RFID tags!!!
Might make having too many of those nu-euro notes all-in-one place even more dangerous...
Joe Torre - X - HardwareEngineer @ Amiga Inc & ZapMedia Amiga, AmigaDE, BeOS, Linuxz, QNX, Rebol, Windoze, ZME: So
"Unauthorized copy detected. This system will self-destruct in 10... 9..."
It may seem funny now, but i'm sure they could get it passed with the new SSSCA. Its the perfect business model to solve the problem - that computers last too long, now everyone will be buying new hardware every month. Just like with that light-bulb-burning-out conspiracy...
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Well back in my school days in labour we should build some OPV circuit, well somehow I wired it wrong and when powered the chip exploded and a particle of it even made a small cut in the walle. I thought cool, that we'll do again immidiatly, took the next OPV out of the drawer and plugged in instead of the exploded one, then powered it and nothing happened, it died just siliently, we tried a few other ones, but none other exploded :(, seems it was a one-time event only *g*
--
Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
..for me, being a chemist. (almost, 1 semester 'till I get my M.S.)
:-)
This is what chemistry is all about: finding new materials, and then finding ways to make them explode.
Okay, it's now a very dated and obscure reference, but... For fans of the old Airwolf series: Moffet's Ghost would have had a much better time destroying the jetcopter in Season Two if it had been equipped with chips like these. ;-)
sheesh, faggot. seeing naked woman will do you no harm.
.. forbidden on airplanes very soon ...
.. also do not bring your watches, cdplayer, cellular or any device containing explosive chips with you!
... don't dope your equipment!
explosive devices!
or in other words
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Exploding silicon?
:)
...
That's it. I'm going to be very selective in the future about whom I hug.
http://www.keithandbarry.btinternet.co.uk/
I was being humorous, now go fuck yourself.
Now it's really going to be a bitch to use your laptop on an airplane...
"Did you pack your own bags?"
"Has anybody asked you to carry anything onboard the airplane?"
"Is that laptop running an Intel Pentium95 with ActiveDeath technology?"
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
"What do you want blown up today?"
This may make reverse-engineering more difficult.. ...at least the first attempt!
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. -Aristotle