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." Dilbert Hiding On Your CPU Log in/Create an Account | Top | 136 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 136 comments 0: 133 comments 1: 97 comments 2: 68 comments 3: 29 comments 4: 13 comments 5: 9 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. A very cool site, but it's been around for a while (Score:5, Interesting) by plover (150551) * on Friday October 14, @08:48PM (#13795174) (http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Friday October 07, @11:50AM) 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. [ Reply to This Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh (Score:5, Funny) by Shanep (68243) on Friday October 14, @09:07PM (#13795269) (http://slashdot.org/) 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". [google.com] [ Reply to This | ParentRe:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:14PMRe:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh by aklix (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:31PMRe:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh by Shanep (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:10PM Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh (Score:4, Informative) by rob_squared (821479) on Friday October 14, @11:00PM (#13795592) (http://www.lifelinesys.com/) Unfortunately, it's a hoax:http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blsux.htm [about.com] [ Reply to This | Parent1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh by nuxx (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:26PMRe:A very cool site, but it's been around for a wh by plover (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:20PM Copyright? (Score:4, Interesting) by tepples (727027) <tepplesatslashdot@pineight.com> on Friday October 14, @08:50PM (#13795184) (http://nonofollow.net/ | Last Journal: Sunday January 23, @12:49AM) 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? [ Reply to ThisRe:Copyright? by Pharmboy (Score:3) Friday October 14, @08:55PMRe:Copyright? by MikeFM (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:25PMRe:Copyright? by John Hasler (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:31PMRe:Copyright? by qzulla (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:36PMSmall fry vs big fishes... by CreateWindowEx (Score:3) Friday October 14, @10:09PMRe:Copyright? by einhverfr (Score:2) Saturday October 15, @12:06AMRe:Copyright? by tepples (Score:1) Saturday October 15, @12:14AMRe:Copyright? by aardvarkjoe (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:40PMRe:Copyright? by John Hasler (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:52PMRe:Copyright? by ockegheim (Score:1) Friday October 14, @11:23PMRe:Copyright? by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:24PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Quite Ammusing (Score:5, Funny) by Kickboy12 (913888) on Friday October 14, @08:52PM (#13795191) (http://cacrew.com/) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:Quite Ammusing by Krach42 (Score:3) Friday October 14, @08:55PMRe:Quite Ammusing by Baddas (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:02PMRe:Quite Ammusing by Kickboy12 (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:03PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Quite Ammusing by NanoGator (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:51PMRe:Quite Ammusing by Syberghost (Score:2) Friday October 14, @11:32PMRe:Quite Ammusing by Landshark17 (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:07PMRe:Quite Ammusing by slimak (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:27PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Quite Ammusing by uberjoe (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:14PMRe:Quite Ammusing by gerardlt (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:35PMRe:Quite Ammusing by Lisandro (Score:2) Friday October 14, @11:21PMRe:Quite Amusing by ElNerdoJorge (Score:1) Friday October 14, @11:53PMRe:Quite Ammusing [sic] by einhverfr (Score:2) Saturday October 15, @12:12AM4 replies beneath your current threshold. Mirror anyone? (Score:2) by torgosan (141603) * on Friday October 14, @08:53PM (#13795198) (http://slashdot.org/) Site's being /.'d bigtime...anyone fast enough to mirror the good stuff?TIA [ Reply to ThisRe:Mirror anyone? by billsoxs (Score:1) Friday October 14, @08:58PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Mirror anyone? by billsoxs (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:01PMRe:Mirror anyone? by absinthminded64 (Score:1) Friday October 14, @10:02PMAlways happens like this... by Tatarize (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:38PMRe:Mirror anyone? by x86eon (Score:1) Saturday October 15, @12:36AM Not new but still fun (Score:2, Interesting) by billsoxs (637329) on Friday October 14, @08:53PM (#13795201) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:Not new but still fun by Pharmboy (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:03PMRe:Not new but still fun by Lehk228 (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:19PMRe:Not new but still fun by OzPeter (Score:3) Friday October 14, @09:44PMRe:Not new but still fun by NanoGradStudent (Score:3) Friday October 14, @10:07PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. A new record? (Score:5, Informative) by Seehund (86897) on Friday October 14, @08:54PM (#13795204) (http://amigapop.8bit.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Monday April 26, @01:07PM) 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 [slashdot.org] from exactly 2 years ago was a bit late... [ Reply to ThisRe:A new record? by Rellik66 (Score:1) Friday October 14, @08:56PM Re:A new record? (Score:5, Informative) by Seehund (86897) on Friday October 14, @08:57PM (#13795223) (http://amigapop.8bit.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Monday April 26, @01:07PM) Yeah, I thought the one from 1998 [slashdot.org] felt a bit dated too. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:A new record? by Pharmboy (Score:2) Friday October 14, @08:59PMRe:A new record? by Auckerman (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:04PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Before chips art, there was pcboard art. by Nick Driver (Score:2) Saturday October 15, @12:17AM I've often had the feeling (Score:5, Funny) by mctk (840035) on Friday October 14, @08:54PM (#13795205) (http://www.livejournal.com/users/mctk) that Alice and her fist of death are hiding on my cpu. [ Reply to ThisRe:I've often had the feeling by RatBastard (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:09PM The article is absolutely true. (Score:5, Funny) by deft (253558) on Friday October 14, @08:54PM (#13795209) (http://www.importprecision.com/) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:The article is absolutely true. by punkin (Score:1) Friday October 14, @11:06PM Wow... (Score:3, Funny) by Poromenos1 (830658) on Friday October 14, @08:57PM (#13795222) (http://porocrom.poromenos.org/) Man... This gives porn in your PC a whole new meaning... [ Reply to This And everything old is new, again. (Score:5, Funny) by porkchop_d_clown (39923) on Friday October 14, @08:58PM (#13795228) (http://www.chesmontastro.org/) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:And everything old is new, again. by BrynM (Score:2) Friday October 14, @10:40PM3 replies beneath your current threshold. I like Dilbert (Score:1) by milktoastman (572643) on Friday October 14, @09:00PM (#13795240) ...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. [ Reply to ThisRe:I like Dilbert by poopdeville (Score:1) Friday October 14, @09:55PM Someday... (Score:4, Interesting) by Landshark17 (807664) on Friday October 14, @09:04PM (#13795259) ...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. [ Reply to ThisRe:Someday... by Boglin (Score:2) Friday October 14, @11:45PMRe:Someday... by jamesbernsen (Score:1) Saturday October 15, @12:35AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. What I want to see (Score:2, Interesting) by Lars T. (470328) <(ed.tsope) (ta) (regearT.sraL)> on Friday October 14, @09:06PM (#13795267) (Last Journal: Saturday September 24, @10:45PM) is an image of Zonk stomped on by that large Python foot. His work today has again been outstandingly typical for him. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Mirror (Score:1, Redundant) by noth(a)nk.you (881806) on Friday October 14, @09:06PM (#13795268) Nyud.net Mirror:http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu.nyud.net:8090/creature s/ [nyud.net] [ Reply to This unleash the copyright lawyers! (Score:1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14, @09:10PM (#13795279) 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? [ Reply to This huh? (Score:3, Informative) by Sebastopol (189276) on Friday October 14, @09:16PM (#13795301) (http://slashdot.org/) 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? [ Reply to ThisRe:huh? by serbanp (Score:1) Saturday October 15, @12:19AM The key to success (Score:5, Funny) by 3770 (560838) on Friday October 14, @09:21PM (#13795318) (http://vsxgen.sourceforge.net/) This won't really be driving sales until they put porn on there. [ Reply to This Decent Mirror at Archive.Org (Score:4, Informative) by Proudrooster (580120) on Friday October 14, @09:28PM (#13795334) Try this link from The Wayback Machine, they have quite a few of the pics:Archive.org [archive.org]My favorites, The Buffalo [archive.org] andThe Wright Brothers [archive.org] [ Reply to This goatse? (Score:2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14, @09:29PM (#13795335) did anybody find goatse on one of the processors yet? [ Reply to This Soviet Russia (Score:2) by someguy456 (607900) <someguy456@phreaker.net> on Friday October 14, @09:35PM (#13795349) (http://someguy456.computed.net/ | Last Journal: Monday May 19, @12:59PM) 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.. [ Reply to ThisRe:Soviet Russia by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Friday October 14, @10:09PMRe:Soviet Russia by Rouge8 (Score:1) Friday October 14, @11:27PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Copyright infringement? (Score:2) by Matt Perry (793115) <perrym3 AT gmail DOT com> on Friday October 14, @09:36PM (#13795352) Snoopy, Daffy Duck, Dilbert, Dogbert How long before the manufacturers are sued for copyright infringement? I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. [ Reply to ThisRe:Copyright infringement? by jumpingfred (Score:2) Friday October 14, @09:56PM Interesting but old news (Score:1) by Kranfer (620510) on Friday October 14, @09:42PM (#13795366) (http://treksims.com/) 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 :) [ Reply to This Don't forget what's inside the chips... (Score:1) by macgeek (22429) <slash&computerboy,com> on Friday October 14, @09:53PM (#13795391) (http://adam.gerstein.net/ | Last Journal: Sunday June 12, @01:50PM) 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. [ Reply to This My first encounter (Score:2) by Weaselmancer (533834) on Friday October 14, @09:55PM (#13795399) I opened my old Amiga 500, and for some reason Rock Lobster [emugaming.com] was on my motherboard! [ Reply to ThisRe:My first encounter by Jayfar (Score:2) Saturday October 15, @12:07AM Who remembers Number 9 video cards? (Score:1) by asbestos-man (921639) on Friday October 14, @10:10PM (#13795436) Same type of thing except they had sayings related to the Beatles on their video card boards. [ Reply to This I did this! (Score:3, Interesting) by jkeegan (35099) on Friday October 14, @10:11PM (#13795439) (http://www.keegan.org/jeff | Last Journal: Thursday October 16, @06:50PM) 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. :) [ Reply to This bill sux (Score:3, Interesting) by adrianmonk (890071) on Friday October 14, @10:13PM (#13795444) Since nobody else has mentioned it yet,there is always thisone [monash.edu.au] [ Reply to ThisRe:bill sux by swiftstream (Score:2) Saturday October 15, @12:06AMRe:bill sux by billsoxs (Score:1) Saturday October 15, @12:39AM oh the copyright! (Score:2) by timmarhy (659436) on Friday October 14, @10:25PM (#13795475) 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 [ Reply to This Bosses don't like this (Score:3, Interesting) by elgatozorbas (783538) on Friday October 14, @10:27PM (#13795477) 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. [ Reply to This