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."

Comments

Watch out for that pentium bug!

[tunah]

This system will self-destruct in 10... 9... 8...

7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.00000000198

Geeks must be terrorists

[yahwey]

As if airline restrictions weren't bad enough already, now my laptop will surely be considered a bomb!

Star Trekkin...

[e5z8652]

Science finally explains all those years of exploding consoles in Star Trek!

Explosion?

[alleria]

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?

Re:Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of THOSE!

[e1en0r]

That gives a whole new meaning to the term "cluster bomb".

Ouch

[EggplantMan]

This gives a whole new meaning to 'fatal error'.

Re:Been there...

[tjb]

Heh. Done that before.

I had to remove a flash chip from a socket, but couldn't find the right tool, so I grabbed an 8 inch soldering pick (the kind that look like dentists tools) and proceeded to lift the flash. Unbeknownst to me, I bridged the tool to the unrectified (110V AC) power supply exposed at the switch of my dev board.

Zap! Flash! Bang!

Tossed my sorry ass about three feet backwards while the flash chip burst into flames and jumped about a foot into the air :) After recovering, I took a look at the chip and the packaging was completely gutted in the middle where (presumably) the (ex-)die was.

Oops :)

Tim

It isn't that bad....

[necama]

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....

Re:Magic?

[mselmeci]

You are correct; this does exist. It can be found in the Jargon File, Appendix A (blockquoted here, you're welcome).

A Story About `Magic'

Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no one knows who).

You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labeled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words `magic' and `more magic'. The switch was in the `more magic' position.

I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side.

It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed.

Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the `more magic' position before reviving the computer.

A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the `more magic' position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch.

The computer promptly crashed.

This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since.

We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic.

I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on `more magic'.

1994: Another explanation of this story has since been offered. Note that the switch body was metal. Suppose that the non-connected side of the switch was connected to the switch body (usually the body is connected to a separate earth lug, but there are exceptions). The body is connected to the computer case, which is, presumably, grounded. Now the circuit ground within the machine isn't necessarily at the same potential as the case ground, so flipping the switch connected the circuit ground to the case ground, causing a voltage drop/jump which reset the machine. This was probably discovered by someone who found out the hard way that there was a potential difference between the two, and who then wired in the switch as a joke.

READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE

[Have Blue]

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.

Martian Technology!

[farrellj]

Finally, we pitiful earthlings can build the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!

Lookout Marvin!

ttyl
Farrell

Machine language

[TheSHAD0W]

Heh. Finally, the fabled machine code operators can be implemented...

HCF - Halt and Catch Fire
XOI - Execute Operator Immediately

Re:They already do that.

[Cato the Elder]

I know that one company I used to work for had a military contract and one of the items was to garuntee that the data containing parts of the system would be completely melted by X degress at temperature Y. I believe they did something like put thermite and a triggering unit in the case with it.

That, of course, does much more damage than just a chip explosion. I've only seen one exploded chip--the SCSI controller on an MVME2700 (Motorola) blew about a quarter of the area and half the depth out. I was kinda reassured when I looked at my own board and saw that it had a different model chip in that spot. I don't think it could have killed anyone put it certianly could have done some serious damage to an eye if you leaned over to plug the chassis in. (I wish I had the picture handy, put I don't)