Dilbert Hiding On Your CPU

Case_Argentina writes "Interesting article and photos on News.com about a guy who does microscopy photography discovering hidden images in computer chips. The images, made by tiny wires connecting the deeper layers of the chip, were left there by engineers leaving messages to competitors, or just having plain fun. Snoopy, Daffy Duck, Dilbert, Dogbert and lots of silicon characters and images can be seen at The Silicon Zoo." Update: 10/15 06:27 GMT by Z : As some readers have pointed out, if history serves you can look forward to reading about this again in 2007.

Comments

A very cool site, but it's been around for a while

[plover]

It was new to me about six years ago, anyway. I had purchased a $5.00 Radio Shack microscope so I could take in the craftsmanship of an old piece of core memory I'd come across. (It was 16KB and the core took up about 8" x 10" on the card). I have been collecting old memory, and had discovered I could easily pry the aluminum cans off of IBM chips with my Swiss Army Knife. I was looking at a late 1980s vintage chip and discovered a design! Later on after discovering a link to the Silicon Zoo I contacted the author. We exchanged notes, I dropped the chip in the mail, and he photographed it beautifully, and put it up on his site. I thought it was really cool.

I've looked at a lot of chips since then, but the old 100x pocket microscope can't make out any details on these new high density chips. When they started cramming billions of transistors 60nm apart, there's very little chance of spotting anything optically.

Copyright?

[tepples]

Are these images used with permission? Or have the copyright or trademark owners of these images taken any legal action against chip makers that use these images without permission?

Re:Copyright?

[Pharmboy]

Thats actually a good question, however, since the copyrighted material is not being used as a means to sell the chips, or to improve the chips, I would image this would fall under "Fair Use". Then again, so does backing up your own DVD's and that hasn't stopped the MPAA from coming out against it.

Now you make me wonder about tattoos. If a tattoo artist did a Bugs Bunny tatto for me, would he be violating copyright because he charged me for it? I'm sure I wouldn't be because I didn't profit from it, but I see lots of toon tattos. My brother even has one.

Re:Copyright?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. This chip etching had the foresight of a legal disclaimer. So, everything's okay. Plus, with the right microscope you, too, can know who owns the Unix trademark (see bottom of the inset circle).

Re:Copyright?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares?

Re:Copyright?

[MikeFM]

I think it'd be pretty difficult to claim copyright infringement on a photograph you took of something else unless the photograph was of the entire work and of a quality that clearly was meant to be near to the original. I mean if you photograph a store front Pepsi can't really claim you're violating their copyright of their Pepsi sign. Likewise if you photograph a close-up of the treads on your tire Firestone can't really claim you're stealing their IP. Fair use should definately come into play with such things.

Backing up DVD's isn't copyright infringement - it's DMCA infringment. We should never have let the bastards make it illegal to reverse engineer for the purpose of fair use.

Tattoos I'm surprised they haven't done something about. If it's an exact duplicate it's copyright violation and even if not it's probably a trademark violation. I've seen some pretty gross misuses of trademarked images that'd seem to defile the purity of some of these characters.

Re:Copyright?

[John Hasler]

Thats actually a good question, however, since the copyrighted material is not being used as a means to sell the chips, or to improve the chips, I would image this would fall under "Fair Use".

I doubt it.

If a tattoo artist did a Bugs Bunny tatto for me, would he be violating copyright because he charged me for it? I'm sure I wouldn't be because I didn't profit from it, but I see lots of toon tattos.

Copyright infringement does not depend on "profit". You would be a contributory infringer if you knew or had reason to know that the artist did not have permission.

Re:Copyright?

[qzulla]

I should copyright/patent "sense of humor." Obviously the corporations haven't.

qz

Re:Copyright?

[aardvarkjoe]

These probably would not fall under fair use; although whether the use is commercial or not is relevant to determine whether or not it's "fair use," it's not the only requirement. Probably slightly more importantly, using many of the cartoon characters would also violate trademark law. The same goes for cartoon tattoos.

Of course, both of these are probably under the radar for the copyright and trademark holders.

Re:Copyright?

[John Hasler]

> Probably slightly more importantly, using many of the cartoon
> characters would also violate trademark law.

It's extremely unlikely that these marks are registered for use on semiconductor devices. Even if they were, there is no possibility here of confusing the public.

> The same goes for cartoon tattoos.

There might be a dilution argument in the case of tattoos.

Re:Copyright?

[ockegheim]

Of course, both of these are probably under the radar for the copyright and trademark holders.

When I was very young, a friend of my parents made me a Mickey Mouse pillowcase. Though I enjoyed it for many years we never had Disney's lawyers breathing down our necks. I would suggest that the cartoon characters on computer chips have a similar intended level of exposure than my pillowcase, and were not intended for profit either.

Re:Copyright?

[einhverfr]

IANAL, but I would think that this might be arguably fair use. The basic argument is that this is of limited distribution in that nobody who buys a chip is going to look at and enjot the image of Dilbert. And it is just an independant artist getting a little creative and creating a work of art that is not intended to be viewed by the general public anyway.

Besides anyone bringing such a suit would just look *stupid.* What sort of damages could one claim exactly? Not like it is actually reducing the market or devaluing the original work. And 3 x $0 is still $0. This is one area where I can think that the damages would not likely justify the lawsuit.

Re:Copyright?

[tepples]

What sort of damages could one claim exactly?

Statutory damages for willful infringement range from $750 to $150,000 per work infringed, even if actual damages are $0.

Re:Copyright?

[Linker3000]

Someone near to where I used to live painted a cartoon character on their garage door and it made the local papers because it was rather neat. Cue the legal letter from the studios and they had to paint it over.

Re:Copyright?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut up, copyright weenie! ;-)

Re:Copyright?

[Gwyn_232]

Is your brother gay? (and no, I do not "want some")

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

Quite Ammusing

[Kickboy12]

Makes you wonder where they get the ideas from. Hypothetically speaking, I'd probably mark my chip with a giant penis. Why? The world may never know.

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Krach42]

Careful! The ESRB would revoke your rating, then it would get marked as AO, and your chips could only be sold to people over the age of 18.

Try explaining at 16 to your dad that he need to go buy you that chip because you can't buy it yourself because there's a 1:10000 scale penis on it.

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Anonymous Coward]

compensation ;)

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Baddas]

You mean a very, very tiny penis... Remember that these are micro or nano scale features.

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Kickboy12]

True, but at full scale it would be considered 'giant'. Or, atleast, 8 inches?

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Landshark17]

That gives new meaning to "microsoft".

Re:Quite Ammusing

[uberjoe]

As long as there are no goatse images on, I guess I'm okay with it.

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Anonymous Coward]

'giant'. Or, atleast, 8 inches?

http://www.blurofinsanity.com/penislength.html

http://www.world-sex-records.com/sex-001.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_size

Re:Quite Ammusing

[gerardlt]

Makes you wonder where they get the ideas from. Hypothetically speaking, I'd probably mark my chip with a giant penis. Why? The world may never know.

We can only hope!

Re:Quite Ammusing

[NanoGator]

"... or nano scale features."

I don't think you guys wanna compare to your features to mine. ;)

Re:Quite Ammusing

[slimak]

For the longest time I have thought that a great company name would be macrohard

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Lisandro]

As long as it's not 1:1 scale...

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Syberghost]

You mean a very, very tiny penis... Remember that these are micro or nano scale features.

He meant compared to his own.

Reminds me of the old joke:

She told me to give her 12 inches and make it hurt, so I effed her twice and hit her with a brick.

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! OMFG ROFLMAOLOLROFLOMGROFLOLOLOLOL!!!1!!11!!11!!!! Taht is teh funn1357!!!!1!!!!!1onehundredandeleven!!!11!!!!! Please don't come back here until you grow at least 1 pubic hair, mm-kay Napoleon?

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Mechanik]

Makes you wonder where they get the ideas from. Hypothetically speaking, I'd probably mark my chip with a giant penis. Why? The world may never know.

Dude, if your idea of "giant" is 18 microns, I'd hate to be your significant other...

Re:Quite Ammusing

[wildsurf]

As long as there are no goatse images on, I guess I'm okay with it.

Well, chips these days do have gigantic heatsinks...

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Anonymous Coward]

Whishfull Thinking ??

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Haydn Fenton]

But you're "NanoGater", therefore you must also be on the nano scale, if not smaller. :)

Re:Quite Ammusing

[Dan-DAFC]

Try explaining at 16 to your dad that he need to go buy you that chip because you can't buy it yourself because there's a 1:10000 scale penis on it.

It's 1:1 you insensitive clod.

Mirror anyone?

[torgosan]

Site's being /.'d bigtime...anyone fast enough to mirror the good stuff?

TIA

Re:Mirror anyone?

[billsoxs]

No mirror but here are the words from the site - hope it helps: By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: October 12, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT TalkBackE-mailPrintTrackBack More than 10 years ago, Michael Davidson went looking to capture the beauty of microchip circuitry in photographs. In among the transistors and wire traces, he found something unexpected: Waldo. "When I first saw him, he was upside-down, and I didn't recognize his face," the Florida-based cell biology researcher said. Davidson suspected at first that the tiny design he saw was circular patterns added to the chip to thwart attempts by reverse-engineers to deduce its inner workings. But a second inspection showed it to be the characteristically hard-to-find character from the children's book series. "I realized, 'This is a doodle of some kind.' Then I started looking over the whole chip. I discovered Daffy Duck and other things on that chip," Davidson said. That was just the start of a catalog that now holds more than 100 images of extremely small automobiles, dinosaurs, birds of prey, cartoon characters and even a wedding announcement silhouette--all tucked away among microchip circuits. Davidson calls the collection the Silicon Zoo. After Davidson found Waldo, he and others started enthusiastically tearing apart Hewlett-Packard workstations and Digital Equipment Corp.'s Vax minicomputers from to find more. And when Davidson posted the images online, chip designers started sending him new samples, often challenging him to find the artwork without telling him what it was. Now he has more than 300 chips with unusual micrographic imagery. While the width of the Waldo image is just over half the diameter of a human hair, sizes vary widely, depending on artistic impulses and the ever-shrinking features made possible with more advanced chip manufacturing. The difficulty of finding them is commensurate. "Some are so big, it's like finding an automobile in a haystack. Some are so small, it's like finding a needle," Davidson said. Davidson is a cell biology researcher at Florida State University, but he also does educational Web sites about microscopy under contract for microscope makers Nikon and Olympus. He also has micrographs of everything from beer to vitamin C. The silicon chip images show a particular kind of technical aesthetic. For example, one of the images Davidson finds most impressive is of Thor, the Norse god of thunder--a comparatively large, square image measuring about 1 millimeter on edge of an HP chip. The picture is created out of a matrix of tiny dots, each one a "sunken via," or a tiny wire that connects one layer of a chip to a deeper layer. But such artistic whimsy in some cases came with a cost, Davidson said. "A lot of chip designers told me it was absolutely forbidden. Some of them lost their jobs doing this stuff," he said. With the extensive scrutiny that today's chips undergo, it's now impossible to sneak in a doodle without corporate authorities knowing. "You put Dogbert on one of these chips, and they're going to notice," Davidson said. Historical etchings Silicon artistry is a skill more than three decades old. The earliest known images in the Silicon Zoo are on Texas Instruments chips from the late 1960s or early 1970s, featuring a sailboat, the Apollo mission lunar lander and the U.S.S. Enterprise starship from the "Star Trek" TV series. The most prolific practitioners of silicon artistry were at HP, in Davidson's opinion. "They had a competition going as to who could create the most complex art," he said. Intel microchips, by contrast, have hardly any artwork. "The only thing we found was that shepherd on that dual-ported RAM controller," he said. In a visual-technical pun, the shepherd is overseeing a ram with two heads, symbolizing a chip that governs random access memory (RAM) with two communication channels. Not all the discoveries have been artistic. On one chip, there's a rambling hodgepodge of nonsensical legal warnings. In another, a Vax chip from DEC, is a message in Russian for the would-be

Re:Mirror anyone?

[billsoxs]

Grrr! Sorry forgot to set the formating...

By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: October 12, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT TalkBackE-mailPrintTrackBack More than 10 years ago, Michael Davidson went looking to capture the beauty of microchip circuitry in photographs. In among the transistors and wire traces, he found something unexpected: Waldo.

"When I first saw him, he was upside-down, and I didn't recognize his face," the Florida-based cell biology researcher said.

Davidson suspected at first that the tiny design he saw was circular patterns added to the chip to thwart attempts by reverse-engineers to deduce its inner workings. But a second inspection showed it to be the characteristically hard-to-find character from the children's book series. "I realized, 'This is a doodle of some kind.' Then I started looking over the whole chip. I discovered Daffy Duck and other things on that chip," Davidson said.

That was just the start of a catalog that now holds more than 100 images of extremely small automobiles, dinosaurs, birds of prey, cartoon characters and even a wedding announcement silhouette--all tucked away among microchip circuits. Davidson calls the collection the Silicon Zoo.

After Davidson found Waldo, he and others started enthusiastically tearing apart Hewlett-Packard workstations and Digital Equipment Corp.'s Vax minicomputers from to find more. And when Davidson posted the images online, chip designers started sending him new samples, often challenging him to find the artwork without telling him what it was. Now he has more than 300 chips with unusual micrographic imagery.

While the width of the Waldo image is just over half the diameter of a human hair, sizes vary widely, depending on artistic impulses and the ever-shrinking features made possible with more advanced chip manufacturing. The difficulty of finding them is commensurate. "Some are so big, it's like finding an automobile in a haystack. Some are so small, it's like finding a needle," Davidson said.

Davidson is a cell biology researcher at Florida State University, but he also does educational Web sites about microscopy under contract for microscope makers Nikon and Olympus. He also has micrographs of everything from beer to vitamin C.

The silicon chip images show a particular kind of technical aesthetic. For example, one of the images Davidson finds most impressive is of Thor, the Norse god of thunder--a comparatively large, square image measuring about 1 millimeter on edge of an HP chip. The picture is created out of a matrix of tiny dots, each one a "sunken via," or a tiny wire that connects one layer of a chip to a deeper layer.

But such artistic whimsy in some cases came with a cost, Davidson said.

"A lot of chip designers told me it was absolutely forbidden. Some of them lost their jobs doing this stuff," he said.

With the extensive scrutiny that today's chips undergo, it's now impossible to sneak in a doodle without corporate authorities knowing. "You put Dogbert on one of these chips, and they're going to notice," Davidson said.

Historical etchings Silicon artistry is a skill more than three decades old. The earliest known images in the Silicon Zoo are on Texas Instruments chips from the late 1960s or early 1970s, featuring a sailboat, the Apollo mission lunar lander and the U.S.S. Enterprise starship from the "Star Trek" TV series.

The most prolific practitioners of silicon artistry were at HP, in Davidson's opinion. "They had a competition going as to who could create the most complex art," he said.

Intel microchips, by contrast, have hardly any artwork. "The only thing we found was that shepherd on that dual-ported RAM controller," he said. In a visual-technical pun, the shepherd is overseeing a ram with two heads, symbolizing a chip that governs random access memory (RAM) with two communication channels.

Not all the discoveries have been artistic. On one chip, there's a rambling hodgepodge of nonsensical legal

Re:Mirror anyone?

[absinthminded64]

No, Can't help you there. . but being a Tallahassee resident it is reassuring to know that at least one of the fires I see burning over at the FSU campus is caused by a slashdotting, and not a bong mishap.

Re:Mirror anyone?

[x86eon]

Try Coral: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu.nyud.net:8090/creature s/

More Information on Coral

Re:Mirror anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh...slashdot's line removal strikes again

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

First I've heard of it, but then again, I'm a software guy.

Not new but still fun

[billsoxs]

This has been going on since the beginning of the IC. In fact I heard once that the Soviets copied some IC (I think from TI) and even had the Easter eggs on it... They did not seem to know the difference - or else they were told to copy it exactly and they did it so that they did not get into trouble.

Re:Not new but still fun

[Pharmboy]

I do this with images I publish. Hide initials in the image so if the offending thief says otherwise, I can point it out.

Usually, I just write the standard issue "I'm glad you like our images but.." letter and that works.

Re:Not new but still fun

[Lehk228]

perhapse they used some photographic process to duplicate the chip thus making it take less time to leave the eggs in than to remove them

Re:Not new but still fun

[OzPeter]

Who was it who said "Never attribute to malice, that which can be attributed to stupidity" ??

I know this is OT but hey .. its sort of related

In the late '80s I was working in the R&D lab of a paper company. Part of our job was to get new grades of cardboard made into a standard sized box that we could smash to bits in a machine to see how well they lasted. As we got these boxes by the hundreds we just sent out designs to the manufacturing section to produce them, and deliver them back.

Well one day someone took the latest box design from some CAD drawings, saved it to a floppy, put it in a floppy mailer and sent it to the manufacturing department with a note attached saying "Make us 150 of these". I am sure you can all it coming head on .. yep .. we got back 150 beautifully crafted floppy mailers. We had a pile there for a while with a sign that said "please take"

Re:Not new but still fun

[NanoGradStudent]

I'm not sure about the exact duplicate part, but here's at least one Easter Egg targeted towards Soviet IC reverse engineers.

Re:Not new but still fun

[Anonymous Coward]

the actual translation from cyrillic is :

enough stealing
the real one is better

Re:Not new but still fun

[Anonymous Coward]

"Never attribute to malice, that which can be attributed to stupidity"
        -Richard Fineman

Re:Not new but still fun

[bob]

Hanlon's Razor. See also this

Re:Not new but still fun

[Anonymous Cowpat]

similar story:
During WW2 a B29 was attacked by Japanese fighters and had to make an emergency landing in Russia. Being allies the Russians sent the pilots back to the US but, for whatever reason, (probably because it wasn't worth the effort) they didn't send the plane, or at least not promptly. The Russian engineers were told to copy it exactly and that what they did - they even copied the bullet holes from where it was attacked and the incorrect paint job from the shortage of the right colour when the original B29 was made.

A new record?

[Seehund]

More than 10 years ago, Michael Davidson went looking to capture the beauty of microchip circuitry in photographs.

And here I was thinking this Slashdot story from exactly 2 years ago was a bit late...

Re:A new record?

[Rellik66]

Ah, I wondered why I had this sense of Déjà Vu.

Re:A new record?

[Seehund]

Yeah, I thought the one from 1998 felt a bit dated too.

Re:A new record?

[Pharmboy]

And here I was thinking this Slashdot story from exactly 2 years ago was a bit late...

No, it's just that the Slashdot editors have been really busy lately, and they are getting behind on their dupes ;)

Re:A new record?

[Auckerman]

You didn't look far back. What appears to be the origional post is from 1998.

Re:A new record?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes he did.
Catch up, Cowboy! (Or are you aspiring to become a Slashduh editor?) :)

Re:A new record?

[Anunnaki]

Back when Motorola hid a sword on the G3 (XPC750) die, we came across these silicon art things I dug up the url again : http://www.chipworks.com/gallery/gallery_home.asp

I've often had the feeling

[mctk]

that Alice and her fist of death are hiding on my cpu.

Re:I've often had the feeling

[RatBastard]

Alice works in my office. That FOD really hurts!

The article is absolutely true.

[deft]

I once saw the virgin mary in a chip.... I have it for sale on ebay, hoping golden palace will pick it up... or at least a fanatic catholic.

Re:The article is absolutely true.

[punkin]

Can you give me directions to your house? I want to come over with some of my hermanos and congregate near your PC.

Wow...

[Poromenos1]

Man... This gives porn in your PC a whole new meaning...

Daily Dilbert Comic...

[Dante Shamest]

...is free. If you've never read Dilbert, you should. If there ever was a comic that engineers could appreciate, this would be it.

Re:Daily Dilbert Comic...

[Doppler00]

If you've never read Dilbert? What kind of statement is that? It's marketed so extensively that it would be almost impossible to have not read a Dilbert cartoon.

Re:Daily Dilbert Comic...

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps Zonk could post a review.

And everything old is new, again.

[porkchop_d_clown]

Kids today.

You know, sooner later some kid is going to post an article on discovering this cool cartoon called "Thundar the Barbarian" and Slashdot is going to go nuts.

Re:And everything old is new, again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey I come here to read the same familiar news i read last week! I don't like being confused by all this 'new' stuff you're talking about let's just have the same old stories that i can read and understand about ;)

Re:And everything old is new, again.

[BrynM]

You know, sooner later some kid is going to post an article on discovering this cool cartoon called "Thundar the Barbarian" and Slashdot is going to go nuts.

Damn! It got rejected. You tipped them off didn't you! Well, they'll never expect the Micronauts. No one expects Baron Karza!

Re:And everything old is new, again.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone knows all things past, like you do, you know. Not everybody's God.

Los of people didn't knew about this and appreciate the posting.

So next time, YOU post something new, instead of only questioning other people's work.

Re:And everything old is new, again.

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe it was Thundarr.

Re:And everything old is new, again.

[Anonymous Coward]

You shut your mouth when you're talking to me! Thundarr the barbarian was an awesome show and should not be used in such a sarcastic statement. May your entrails be fed to the demon dogs.

What? No Batman?

[Daimando]

Aww come on. It would have been fun if Batman was among the images implemented on the computer chips.

I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

...because it gives meta-satirists like The Family Guy some good and lame material to rip on. Now, this isn't trolling because I, a geek myself, think it's funny to make fun of geeks. Especially because we tend not to have very good senses of humor.

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

Speak for yourself, code monkey.

Re:I like Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

i have a wonderful sence of humor, it just requires something to be funny

Re:I like Dilbert

[ConceptJunkie]

"Meta-satirists"?

Is that the new name for people who steal all their funny bits from "The Simpsons"?

Re:I like Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Family Guy? Well, if more than 5% of that show was funny...

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

Are you using the quotes around the "The Simpsons" just because it is the title of a TV show, or are you stressing the title to imply that because the show's current incarnation is such a shell of it's former self, it is hardly respectable to refer to the show without some apologetic acknowledgement that it no longer represents the brilliance that its title has come to represent?

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

So only coders can be geeks? Maybe your right. I've always felt a little guilty calling myself a geek when I do women that don't make most people sick.

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

I, a geek myself, think it's funny to make fun of geeks. Especially because we tend not to have very good senses of humor.

Speak for yourself, code monkey. Math geeks are some of the funniest people ever.

Re:I like Dilbert

[ConceptJunkie]

No, it's just a title.

I watched "Family Guy" a few times... almost all of the funny bits were complete rip-off of Homer Simpson. The rest was just sad, having to resort to "TV-14" in place of actual jokes.

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

Well, they certainly think they are, I see.

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

Awww, did calling you a code monkey hurt your feelings? This was just some "meta-satire" for you. Since, you know, you code monkies don't have very good senses of humor.

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

No, that's what pretentious people call people who steal funny bits from "The Simpsons." The rest of us call them 'pedestrian.'

The 'meta-' prefix is a huge red flag of 'paradigm'-like buzzwording.

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

Do you ever program? Does that make you a code monkey? Nope? I am no more a code monkey than you, then. I don't program for a living or for fun. You made a bad assumption, just because I said I was a geek. Or, you made a logical leap without the necessary, justifying steps. Are you sure math is the field for you? (All code monkeys are geeks without senses of humor, but are all geeks without senses of humor code monkeys...jeez, that was pretty basic).

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

Do you ever program? Does that make you a code monkey? Nope? Then, I am no more a code monkey than you. You see, I don't program for a living or for fun. You made a bad assumption, just because I said I was a geek. Or, alternatively, you made a bad leap of logic because you skipped the justifying, in-between steps. Are you sure math is the field for you? (All code monkeys are geeks without senses of humor, but are all geeks without senses of humor code monkeys?...jeez, that's pretty basic).

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

The word 'buzzword' is a meta-buzzword. Recursive and 'laugh out loud hilarious.' It will have the whole family in stitches!

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

No, it's just a word. They're all on an even playing field. There's nothing transcendent about it. Feel free to play your word games. I've already learned to ignore the pomo meta-tards.

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

It doesn't mean a word is transcendent, it just means it's a word about words. Meta-satire is satire of satire. Metaphysics isn't "above" physics, it's about physics (but still often crap). And you are a meta-snob. A snob towards snobbery. Sometimes meta- means a "higher" level, but only in certain circumstances.

It all doesn't really matter though. I'm just concerned for you. You seem so dismal and rigid. There are other styles out there. You are very bigoted about your taste.

Also, we've both made grammatical mistakes in our exchanges. I suppose linguists could rip on both of us. They would put us in the same camp! How's that for awful, eh?

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

I'll take your concern for what it's worth.

I suggest you take a look in a dictionary for the definition of the prefix 'meta-'. It means:

1. later in time
2. situated behind
3. beyond, transcending
4. having undergone metamorphosis
5. one of the possible isomers... blah blah blah, it's chemistry related

The "about" definition is an abuse from the use of 'meta-' in 'metalanguage' in Mathematics and Philosophy by intellectually soft post modernists. In particular, a metalanguage is a language used to analyze another. It is transcendent over the other on that basis, for often the metalanguage can express things the other cannot. Metaphysics is not "about physics." The field takes its name from a series of books that were placed after the "Physics". First century scholars of Aristotle called these books the "ta meta ta physica biblia," which means "the books that come after the books about physics." Aristotle himself called what we call metaphysics "First Philosophy."

Call me a snob if you must. I understand the relativity of language, and that I cannot expect it to remain static. Indeed, a linguist would look at both of our gramatical mistakes a simple data points for the current evolution of language. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't resist the watering down of perfectly good technical words by people who fundamentally don't understand them. We've already lost "abstraction" and "paradigm" to marketers. It's embarassing to everyone involved when people are accused of intellectual laziness.

Re:I like Dilbert

[ConceptJunkie]

I understand the relativity of language, and that I cannot expect it to remain static. Indeed, a linguist would look at both of our gramatical mistakes a simple data points for the current evolution of language. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't resist the watering down of perfectly good technical words by people who fundamentally don't understand them. We've already lost "abstraction" and "paradigm" to marketers. It's embarassing to everyone involved when people are accused of intellectual laziness.

I agree. "Family Guy" sucks.

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

I think then the difference between being "about" and being "transcendent above" is ambiguous. I didn't like being accused of implying trancedence in my usages because I don't want to imply any philosophically weightiness to what I was saying. I was shying away from a connotation of the word 'trancendent,' and that led me into a trap of focusing on 'about-edness.' But, yeah, 'meta-' doesn't mean 'about' in the simple way that a car magazine is about cars. However, a particular meta-discipline is usually used to analyze the root discipline. So in that sense, it is about that discipline, then. Therefore, even though you don't find it funny, Family Guy does have meta-satire because it sometimes does satirize the art of satire. To do that, it must have rules built in to address the rules of comedy, which are therefore transcedent above comedy (and the Simpsons may even have that, too). And when Family Guy rips on Dilbert or generic topical humor and how the fans sometimes mindlessly laugh at it because they feel they should, it is funny. And yes, they often fail...fail even in a miserable later season Simpsons level. You can't hit 'em all on the head all the time.

So, who is responsible for the 'abuse' of the meta- prefix? Is Hoffstadter responsible (the GEB dude)? And who really cares if people adapt a particular connotation of a technical word to common usage when it's convenient? For this particular instance, I only think the philosophers and pure mathematicians do. And since no one else really understands what you're doing anyways, and your usage of the words won't be effected by what us peons do with them, why do you care?

By the way, there are lots of PhD-holding research scientists out there who wouldn't look twice at my vulgar usage of 'meta-', so I'm not really worried about my own technical integrity. Maybe that spells the end for the integrity of science and of civilization in general. Maybe. Buy your canned goods and bottled water now, before we forget how to make them.

Re:I like Dilbert

[poopdeville]

And since no one else really understands what you're doing anyways, and your usage of the words won't be effected by what us peons do with them, why do you care?

Because I don't think of non-mathematicians as peons. I'm in fact much more of an egalitarian than you might be lead to believe through our interactions. I've already had to go into several long diatribes about the word with my peers because they accused me of flakiness when the word was exactly what I meant. Same with "paradigm" and "abstraction." And, unfortunately, none of these words have synonyms without connotations I don't mean. So I've literally lost the way to say what I mean.

Sorry I came on so strong.

Re:I like Dilbert

[milktoastman]

I see where this got screwy now. A lot of 'marketers' use meta- to mean 'better.' That is clearly incorrect. I don't mean better. Goodnight.

Re:I like Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

Good God, man - get a grip. You appear to have blown your wad on this one.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading slashdot for news is like reading tabloids for "just the facts".

Someday...

[Landshark17]

...will archeologists unearth computers and try do learn about our primitive culture by seeing what we drew on chips, kind of like archeologists today look at cave painting.

Re:Someday...

[Anonymous Coward]

Differences: cave drawings do not require a microscope to view, and I am not an expert, but I imagine that most don't require a regulated power supply

Analogy = Flawed

Re:Someday...

[Boglin]

I was about to leave a snarky comment about how acheologists don't exactly look at cave paintings with an electron microscope. Then, I remembered hearing about using lasers to map the exact surface of the monoliths at Stonehenge. Frankly, pulling out the electron microscopes can't be that much further off.

Re:Someday...

[jamesbernsen]

Haven't you read Kurzweil? The archelogists of the future will be chips.

Re:Someday...

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesome. I am a huge fan of Erik Estrada. Too bad they cancelled Sealab 2021. Of course, I guess that gives him more time to work on his PhD. Score 1 for humanity's future and 0 for my late night entertainment. You fucking human, uh, ity, bastards. I'll keelhard you all! Um, argh!

What I want to see

[Lars T.]

is an image of Zonk stomped on by that large Python foot. His work today has again been outstandingly typical for him.

Re:What I want to see

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of being negatively moderated, you should be receiving awards for the phrase "outstandingly typical." What a perfect way to describe Zonk.

Re:What I want to see

[corpsiclex]

dude...pythons don't have any feet.

Re:What I want to see

[Lars T.]

The Monty Python has one.

Mirror

[noth(a)nk.you]

Nyud.net Mirror:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu.nyud.net:8090/creature s/

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[Shanep]

It was new to me about six years ago, anyway.

I suppose everyone has heard of this, but for those that may not have... I remember many years ago seeing an image of tracks on Pentium silicon which spelled "bill sux".

ICIraq

[Anonymous Coward]

"Snoopy, Daffy Duck, Dilbert, Dogbert and lots of silicon characters and images can be seen at The Silicon Zoo.""

I don't see any WMDs?

unleash the copyright lawyers!

[Anonymous Coward]

Many of these images are trademarks or subject to copyright. How much you wanna bet a bored lawyer will see this as a revenue opportunity?

A penis drawn on a microchip is "giant" to you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, that might not be something you want to admit in public.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you bother to follow any of the links you posted? That was just a hoax.

huh?

[Sebastopol]

I could see if this article was from a print magazine that needed to fill space, so they trot out an ancient story and re-run it. But (a) it is an online publication, and (b) there isn't a single recent example? What a waste of bits. Did their automatic modperl content filler accidentally compute the wrong date or something?

Re:huh?

[serbanp]

and (b) there isn't a single recent example

If you want, I can send you snapshots of logos I put now in all my chips. For geekiness karma points, I'm using the GIMP with the P2M module, which some kind folk told me about here on /. (when the other story about the very same subject has been posted about one year ago). Serban

Re:huh?

[plumby]

Less of a waste of bits than someone bothering to complain about it. Some people won't have seen the original story (or will have forgotten about it) - it's not like it's a dupe from yesterday.

You're not (as far as I can tell) a subscriber, so it's not as if you're paying for the service. If you don't want to read the story, or the posts about it, then don't click on the links. It's quite easy if you try.

Re:huh?

[Sebastopol]

LOL! Oh the irony.

Re:Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

gotta love slashdot. any sort of criticism is moderated into oblivion.

The key to success

[3770]

This won't really be driving sales until they put porn on there.

Re:The key to success

[EMH_Mark3]

Are you kidding? Then we'll have nuts like Jack Thompson howling for recalls of Corsair RAM because there's a 10nm boob etched on the dies. Won't someone think of the children!

Re:The key to success

[Anonymous Coward]

It never hurt when Disney did it

OR maybe that's why there're so many slutty girls out there these days ^_^

Paging Tyler Durden

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone had to do it, just never figured Tyler as an engineering type.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[nuxx]

I don't know if you're interested or not, but I ended up acquiring four frames of IBM core memory which I took to framing and hanging above my couch. Yes, I know the color is off in that photo, but each frame is mounted over a gloss white piece of paper, which is then set on tan foamcore.

Core memory is so cool. :)

Awesome

[drzolo]

Shit, thats hillarious!!

PCBs also has...

[Anonymous Coward]

lots of drawings. I remember seeing eagles, airplanes, sharks, fishs. IBM, HP and Compaq PCBs has then. Disk drives also has a lot.

Decent Mirror at Archive.Org

[Proudrooster]

Try this link from The Wayback Machine, they have quite a few of the pics: Archive.org
My favorites, The Buffalo and The Wright Brothers

goatse?

[Anonymous Coward]

did anybody find goatse on one of the processors yet?

daffy duck?

[Anonymous Coward]

That daffy looks more like a woody woodpecker. Daffy doesn't have feathers sticking out of the top of his head like that. That's definitely a woody

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[aklix]

I have a circuit board that spells that. If I dug through my closet I could get it out and take a picture for you all. So what if it's of my creation?

One Reason . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd probably mark my chip with a giant penis. Why? The world may never know.

There can only be one reason: That is because you like the penis.

Soviet Russia

[someguy456]

In another, a Vax chip from DEC, is a message in Russian for the would-be reverse engineers on the other side of the Iron Curtain trying to determine the chip's functions: "When you steal, steal from the best."

Awaiting Soviet Russia joke in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..

Re:Soviet Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

Awaiting Soviet Russia joke in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..

in soviet russia, joke countdown awaits you!

Re:Soviet Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

> Awaiting Soviet Russia joke in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..

So, engineers of former Soviet nations...

We Yankee geeks know you're out there.

Cold War's over. Some of you have even emigrated here and brought your families out of the reach of the KGB/FSB.

If you feel safe about it -- what "Easter Eggs" did you sneak past your superiors when you copied our IC designs? :-)

Re:Soviet Russia

[Rouge8]

In Soviet Russia the best steal you!

Copyright infringement?

[Matt Perry]

Snoopy, Daffy Duck, Dilbert, Dogbert

How long before the manufacturers are sued for copyright infringement? I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

Re:Copyright infringement?

[jumpingfred]

During a tape out review for a chip I was working on we decided to remove the in house code name from the chip because it was a trade marked cartoon charcter.

Re:Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

pff indeed. Keep on tokin' dude.

Interesting but old news

[Kranfer]

While I do find this article interesting, I have known about the designers of microprocessors doing this for years. While we see the cute pictures, I am wondering what kinds of messages people design into their processors. "You Suck! Love AMD" hehe I am not bias towards intel or AMD... But I do think that is funny :)

In Soviet Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

Computer chips put tattoos on you!

Don't forget what's inside the chips...

[macgeek]

I can't find any links on google because, honestly, I'm not sure I'm remembering it right, but.... Wasn't there a printer firmware that had a naked photo of Paula Abdul or something. I remember it was a big deal back in 1995 or so.

My first encounter

[Weaselmancer]

I opened my old Amiga 500, and for some reason Rock Lobster was on my motherboard!

Re:My first encounter

[Jayfar]

I opened my old Amiga 500, and for some reason Rock Lobster was on my motherboard!

"The tradition was started by George Robbins - the man responsible for most of the low end Amiga systems and continued by other Commodore employees. Robbin's handiwork was immediately recognisable by the B52's song title. His first Amiga project - the A500 - was originally developed under the working title of B52 and the trend continued to four subsequent models."

Sadly, George Robbins aka Grr passed away 3-1/2 years ago. After Commodore disolved he went on to become director of network engineering for Philadelphia's first ISP, where he literally lived on the premises most of the time.

Even on the mainframe

[Anonymous Coward]

Even on the MVS/OS390/zOS operating system, IBM's JES2 (Job Entry Subsystem) has macros called $DOGBERT (Deliver or Get BERT) and $DILBERT (Do It Later BERT).

BERT presentation (PDF)

One of the largest executables is called IGDZILLA.

Re:Even on the mainframe

[gangien]

OMG YOU MENTIONED z/OS god... i have to program on that thign at work.. ugggggh nothing like programming on a system that has files older than you.

Small fry vs big fishes...

[CreateWindowEx]

I'm not too surprised that tattoos haven't been pursued by the copyright holders, because it's pretty nickel-and-dime, and probably in a lot of cases it increases the value of the brand (except for family-focused characters portrayed in adult situations), and suing some guy for a cartoon tattoo is likely to generate a PR backlash.

Big chip companies inscribing copyrighted characters onto their chips, on the other hand, is quite surprising. My guess is that the legal staffs of these companies weren't consulted on this practice, because basically if you have a clue you know that risking litigation for some geeky easter egg that has almost no positive benefit for the company is completely stupid, especially where it's not completely out of the question for the IP holder to be awarded a per-unit royalty retroactively. I suppose the engineers at those companies probably have little experience with the IP issues involving licensed properties and haven't yet achieved that level of defensive paranoia that is pretty much required these days.

Re:Small fry vs big fishes...

[MysteriousPreacher]

Unfortunately some companies don't seem to be bothered by bad PR.

McDonalds and their quest to own the 'Mc' prefix is a good example.

http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/ind_24sep96 .html>McDonalds owns Mc.

In this case, they tried to menace a sandwich shop called McMunchies for unauthorised use of the Mc prefix. The sandwich shop doesn't even sell hamburgers and is based in Scotland - a place where Mc is a relatively common prefix for names.

Telling the Scots that they cannot use the prefix Mc is like someone registering the name Singh and then ban its use in India. Where do they think Mc originated - Illinois?

This chip doodling reminds me of easter eggs. You're right that it does open a legal can of worms. I've seen a big decrease in the number of easter eggs - at least the silly ones. Now, easter eggs are too often the corporate sanctioned ones - i.e. not very funny anymore.

Who remembers Number 9 video cards?

[asbestos-man]

Same type of thing except they had sayings related to the Beatles on their video card boards.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[Shanep]

Uh, yes I did. Did you want me to spoil it for everyone?

I did this!

[jkeegan]

When I was in college, a friend and I took VLSI Design, even though we were the only two in the class.. We used tools like oct-vem to lay out circuits of our own design, then they actually had our chips sent out to be manufactured.

I wrote an 8-bit ALU with carry-look-ahead lines so you could assemble multiple chips together without the delay of normal carry propagation. When we got them back, I connected 4 of them together to act as a 32-bit ALU.

When laying out the chip, the logic for my chip (as apparently is often the case during VLSI design classes) was very small compared to the size of the chip itself.. So on our chips we put the logic in the center, and when running lines out to the pins, routed them in such a way as to make space for a big rectangular area. My chip had my name written in it, in silicon. :)

bill sux

[adrianmonk]

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet, there is always this one

Re:bill sux

[swiftstream]

Since you couldn't be bothered to read the note at the end of the page you linked to, "this one" is a hoax.

Click on link. Read page. Read note at end of page:

Did you enjoy this story? It turns out to have been a hoax. The full story is found here.

Re:bill sux

[billsoxs]

wow they have name on a chip! (and you wonder how I got my name!)

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[plover]

Very nicely done!

I've always just had various ancient memory boards dangling from paper clip chains and wire-wrap wire in my cube. I've got a long time span of stuff, from the 1977 vintage 16K core to about 8 MB worth of 4KB, 16KB, and 64KB 16-pin DIP chips (which had to be individually socketed, 72 to a 512KB board, and God help you if you bent a pin and didn't spot it), some 256KB SIMMs (oooh, SIMMs!), then some 1MB, 2MB and 4MB cards from some old PS/2s. I don't have nearly as many old PC100 DIMMs hanging around, perhaps a few 16MB and 64MB sticks, an oddly shaped stick of laptop RAM, and a few RAM chips from some old video buffers. One of the three 256Kx3 RAM chips is where I found the eagle that I sent to the photographer.

But I don't have your eye, so mine is much more of a random collection of junk that used to store bits. I bet framing or mounting select pieces would help much.

What I'd really like to do is frame the core and nicely mount a magnifying glass over the frame so visitors could see the individual cores.

oh the copyright!

[timmarhy]

obviously these microchip companys are infringing on these authors precious copyright, and are selling huge numbers of chips using thier creations. there should be an immdeiate compensation of 99% of the takings from all previous microchip sales and a future tax of 50% on all chips sales since they are obviously being used to infringe copyrighted works

Bosses don't like this

[elgatozorbas]

The boss doesn't necessarily like this. I once did a chip design (while a student). This was a 'large' passive device, meaning features of 50m or so (a 4x4 antenna array at 26 GHz). We added a Bart Simpson picture, but were warned it should not be rastered (i.e. using small dots to make shades of grey). Apparently the etching of small dots pollutes the chemicals rather heavily such that they need to be replaced early, or something (this was some time ago), or maybe they were afraid that etched out parts would end up somewhere unwanted. Anyway, we were advised not to go too far.

OLD NEWS

[Anonymous Coward]

How the mighty have fallen! I remember the days when Slashdot had all the recent cool news. Here is the link from Digg from 2 days ago...

http://www.digg.com/hardware/What_s_hiding_on_your _microchip_ ... PLEASE IMPROVE SLASHDOT... It is dying a slow death... Literally.

I've seen one of those.....

[ndruw1]

I saw the first 3 letters of the word "viagra" somewhere on my motherboard.....oh wait

Re:I've seen one of those.....

[Rod Beauvex]

Ah, one of the VIA GRA boards. I had one of those. Piece. Of. Shit.

Re:I've seen one of those.....

[kevinstansell]

Really... Only the first three letters?
I managed to find all six.

I actually used it in one of my paintings.

- Kevin Stansell

Re:I've seen one of those.....

[henni16]

FYI: the first link seems to block slashdot as referer (at least at the moment)


(another case where the "prefbar" plugin for Mozilla with its "Send Referrer"-checkbox comes in handy..)

Re:I've seen one of those.....

[kevinstansell]

That's strange... I just asked some friends online to click on the link, and it seems that it only works for half of them. It worked for me last night but this morning it is blocking my request..

Anyway, I'm sorry about the blogger link. Here is a working picture of the VIA Graphics Chip.

On a funny side note, I did a google search on the VIA Graphics chip serial number, and the top result is a website selling Viagra.

- Kevin Stansell

Blatant Copyright Violations

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of these images are Copyrighted.

I hope that these companies will be presecuted to the fullest extent of the law for illegal use of these images.

Always happens like this...

[Tatarize]

Slashdot is great and all, but we don't get good links. We get links to sites that are by definition slashdotted. How about some non-slashdotted links one of these days?

Pics of Linux Penguin on VLSI Project layout

[Phil_EECS]

We never actually got to fabricate it, but when my VLSI group finished our chip last semester we put some art in the whitespace. I was too busy with final integration to actually draw it, but the rest of the group agreed it would be cool to put tux on the layout. A groupmate spent 30 minutes or so creating a pixelized version of tux in the Metal 3 layer. We also have names & school logo on the right and a trombone ASCII art on the left (the multiplier was a little long so we had plenty of whitespace). Tux art is blown up in the linked image. Sorry about the poor quality, but I don't want to suck too much bandwidth and anger the sysadmins. Chip Image

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[rob_squared]

Unfortunately, it's a hoax:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blsux.htm

Linux and Billsux

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember many years ago seeing an image of tracks on Pentium silicon which spelled "bill sux".

Is "Billsux" Microsoft's version of Unix?

Satan Inside!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahahah Where's the Satan Inside! art?

landolakes chick

[0xC2]

All of you geeks have seen this, I'm sure. Remove butter, insert knees...

Coral Cache

[Frankie70]

Here
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu.nyud.net:8090/creature s/index.html

Everything isn't cached yet, I think.
Dogbert is, Diet Slice is. Haven't checked anything else.

HOLY SHIT!!!! GET IT THE FUCK OUT!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy shit! Get it out of there now! Get Dilbert out of my computer!

Is this actually an attempt...

[commrade]

...to make a News Radio reference!?

That show was great.

Re:Quite Amusing

[ElNerdoJorge]

Well, I don't know about a gigantic penis, how about Him?
He always likes people to make circuit art of Him

FSM is the good way to brand a chip.

Feynmann's text

[Spy der Mann]

This might be a little off-topic, but hey, this is slashdot. We need to have an interesting link on funny stories once in a while.

Feynmann's text on nanotechnology - viewed with a microscope.

Soviet Russian

[systemofadown]

The VAX one is funny, but it should have been. "In Soviet Russia, chip reverse engineers you."

Re:Quite Ammusing [sic]

[einhverfr]

My favorites were the half adder and full adder.

If you don't get the joke you don't understand electronics.

But Thor has always been near my heart.

Hoax...

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, now someone will get a few bucks for a hoax. What a bunch of loosers posting this...

Before chips art, there was pcboard art.

[Nick Driver]

A long time ago as a teenager, I used to repair keyboard synths. Anybody remember the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 keyboard from the 1980's? They used to put pictures in the printed circuit board masks such as gorilla faces and such. I thought it was pretty clever at the time.

Better Solution

[Jack9]

Why not make a new topic like...

Internet Super-Stars

and post all the interesting sites worth re-posting, under it. Whatever. Just stop the dupes unless there are updates. Hey look NEW PICS ON HOTORNOT.COM!!!

Re:What?

[whitehatlurker]

Reading slashdot for news is like reading tabloids for "just the facts".

Dang! And here I am, reading it for the pictures.

easter eggs are for wips real men make their mark

[Anonymous Coward]

easter eggs are for wips real men make their mark on chips

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[NotBorg]

Unfortunately, it's a hoax:

Don't buy into that. It's a cover-up funded by Microsoft Corp. Never underestimate the power of the Gate's wallet. And don't think for a minute that it's safe to take of your tinfoil hats either! C-O-N-spiracy.

Re:Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to /., user 918037.

That is quite possibly the most pathetic post I've ever seen. My advice; get a new account, leard how to capitalize, use a spell checker, and think coherently before posting again.

My (strained) reading of your post says you are trying to communicate that you are employed to write code. You have misunderstood the meaning of 'code' or 'work'

ummm

[crashelite]

is it just me or did i read or see this some where a LONG time ago... guess people really are running out of crap to write about and are crossing over every one elses ideas... whats next the 1st 8 bit game system? or is it too advanced for our time?

DeCSS

[eurleif]

Has DeCSS been found on any chips?

2007?

[Nomikos]

Update: 10/15 06:27 GMT by Z : As some readers have pointed out, if history serves you can look forward to reading about this again in 2007.

2007?

Knowing Slashdot, we can read about it again tomorrow! :-)

Re:2007?

[rbarreira]

Well, one of the dupes is from October 15 2003 while the other one is of December 28 1998. Today is October 15 2005, which is probably the reason for the last part of that sentence.

My Digital AlphaStation has one

[TAZ6416]

When you boot up, it flashes up "When I'm 64" which is apt for a machine with an Alpha chip in it ;)

Jonathan

Oscar The Grouch Does America - http://www.mccormackj.fsnet.co.uk/oscarthegrouch

Messages in images databases

[Linker3000]

I used to work for a company that made flight and vehicle simulators. The image database designers and developers used to leave various messages a certain altitude below the end of the main airport runways.

One day we had a customer checking out their aircraft sim and after a test flight and perfect landing, they were confronted by a bunch of rather 'crude' (shall we say!) messages between two of the design team because we'd left the altitude interlocks off and they had 'sailed' the aircraft just the right depth below the runway. Fortunately, they saw the funny side of it but there was a hasty flurry of inter-office memos about message content.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Dilbert hiding in your ANUS?

Teh Chips say...

[Wontsomebodypleaseth]

AMDs Chips say "Sucker,we cant handle more than two applications at an time!" Intels Chips say "WE CANT EVEN OPEN AN APPLIACTION WITH US BURNING OUT"

too small to see on modern chips

[phsdv]

Unfortunately the lines in modern chips are too small to see, even with the best optical microscope. For example the line with of the copper lines in a 120nm process is about 200nm. Visible light has a wavelength of 400-700nm. Therefore these lines are smaller than the visible light, which makes them invisble.

Of course you can make the lines wider, but then you are going to waste a lot of very expensive area. In the last 200 new designs we made, I have not seen a single doodle besides the (C) sign and the compagny name...

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[IdleTime]

Cool site? Maybe if it was actually possible to read it. Who in their right mind is making a website with black background and using lousy white fonts that makes it unreadable?
Is it too much to ask for that people actually make websites that can be read? This got to be one of the best examples of how not to make a website. Horrible!

Wonder if there is...

[CptPicard]

the goatse man somewhere...

Found on prototype Microsoft chipset

[TFGeditor]

"All your base are belong to us."

Yup...

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was in high school one of the teachers took the internal circuitry of an IC so that we could watch it in the microscope. And I was really amazed to discover a rabbit ! and an umbrella ! Then he told us how designs that start big are scaled down... the rest of the story we know it already. This was 16 years ago... (snif!)

Sometimes Dupes

[nurb432]

Are still cool, like in this case.

So seeing it again in 07 for the newcomers isnt all that bad.

This stuff is a nightmare in manufacturing

[boosted_sled]

I manage the tapeout team for a large semiconductor firm and have plenty of first hand experience with this sort of crap causing nightmares in the DRC, mask manufacturing, lithography, and wafer inspection processes. It inevitably costs lots of $$ in waste. The reason you don't see pretty pictures from some companies is that they have their s*&t together and squash this nonsense.

Re:This stuff is a nightmare in manufacturing

[nugas]

This stuff is a nightmare in manufacturing

...and for the people who buy it. See the example from CNET of an HP memory controller. (http://news.com.com/2300-1006_3-5887476-4.html) The artwork flaked off and shorted out other parts of the chip. Note, in particular, how small the art details are compared to the line widths on the chip. There's a reason they make the lines that wide, and not thinner--because they won't stay put if they're thinner.

With the cost of developing a chip as high as it is, these little attempts at humor can be very expensive. When this article re-appears in 2007, let's hope all the examples are the same old ones.

Re:Quite Ammusing [sic]

[cellocgw]

My favorites were the half adder and full adder.

Myself I prefer the Blackadder.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[MysteriousPreacher]

I say exactly the same thing to people who try to tell me that Santa doesn't exist.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[Shanep]

I say exactly the same thing to people who try to tell me that Santa doesn't exist.

[wimper sniffle] You take that back! It's a lie!!

Similar...

[flamingnight]

If you open up a Sun SparcStation IPX, you'll see a cat etched on the motherboard.

PCB

[deepbluegeek]

Years ago I used to layout printed circuit boards. The software we used at the time required us to plot the layer artwork at 4 times the size of the finished board and then we sent them off to the vendor who would then scale them down during the PCB fab process. We would put text messages in the open areas that would read about how stupid our manager was. Once the artwork was scaled down these words were illegible and looked simply like a small dot on the PCB. Made us feel better about something, silly yes, but it was a way to relieve stress.

Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh

[MysteriousPreacher]

You make me wish I had mod point :-)

I found it!

[Muad'Dave]

The text of the "Fine Print" on the Aspen HP chip appears as a "standard Disclaimer" at this website, anong others.