Are chips more vulnerable to witchcraft as they got thinner and narrower?
When the things they do, are closer to being software
subroutines (adhoc state machines and so on), it's a lot
easier to make mistakes. One chip had 4096 registers in
the interface, and we would make a software program to
"watch" the register contents. There were some "defined"
parts of the registers, we could understand what those
were doing. But you would see some other addresses where
the detail of the chip was "undefined" and these were observation
points and stuff was flashing on and off. That's what the
more "random" functions look like. The people at the other
company who made the chip, knew what they did, but they
don't have to document those observation points for other
to use. It took about four tries,
They're generally scale-invariant.
The scribbling on them is smaller, but then we put more of the
scribbling, so they end up having the same X-Y dimensions for the price.
Paul wrote:
When the things they do, are closer to being software
subroutines (adhoc state machines and so on), it's a lot
easier to make mistakes. One chip had 4096 registers in
the interface, and we would make a software program to
"watch" the register contents. There were some "defined"
parts of the registers, we could understand what those
were doing. But you would see some other addresses where
the detail of the chip was "undefined" and these were observation
points and stuff was flashing on and off. That's what the
more "random" functions look like. The people at the other
company who made the chip, knew what they did, but they
don't have to document those observation points for other
to use. It took about four tries,
You made a grand spelling error in that sentence. It should say, "for others to use." What I see is that you are irresponsible and probably going to electrocute yourself to death. Don't play with electricity. Bad juju all around.
On 6/20/2026 4:00 AM, Paul wrote:
They're generally scale-invariant.
The scribbling on them is smaller, but then we put more of the
scribbling, so they end up having the same X-Y dimensions for the price.
Master Paul, I was talking about affecting nano-thin electronics using magical power, like those Jedi mind tricks. The thinner the chip, the
easier to use the Force on it, I suppose. :)
Silicon chips are relatively inanimate objects, at least at the moment.
.....
When you do that, you have to know the tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface. A silicon chip may not have an orderly X*Y
array on the surface, so first you have to map the address of a pixel
by shining a tiny dot of light on various parts of the chip, and
see what responds.
When you do that, you have to know the tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface. A silicon chip may not have an ....
On 6/20/2026 2:48 PM, Paul wrote:
When you do that, you have to know the tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface. A silicon chip may not have an ....
I Google-ed a bit about what you said about "tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface". So all chips are just drawing nano-fine lines on some special surfaces using special materia and light-etching machines? It's not the same as integrated circuits???
What you said is not very much from magicians drawing seals using magical wands!!! :)
o!ooiotAi - YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdU8PHV5LF4>
On 6/20/2026 2:48 PM, Paul wrote:
When you do that, you have to know the tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface. A silicon chip may not have an ....
I Google-ed a bit about what you said about "tiling pattern of cells
on the chip surface". So all chips are just drawing nano-fine lines on
some special surfaces using special materia and light-etching machines?
It's not the same as integrated circuits???
What you said is not very much from magicians drawing seals using
magical wands!!! :)
o!ooiotAi - YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdU8PHV5LF4>
It is a well-known fact that all electronics runs on magic smoke.
The proof is that when the smoke leaks out, it stops working.
When you make DRAM or NAND flash, the elements have
to be laid down in the X,Y direction. And they are
not put in order. They're arranged to reduce
electrical interference.
.....
There are a number of patterns in electronics, that aren't power-of-two
any more. A lot of the former concepts of "what is easy to do",
have been thrown out the window.
Are chips more vulnerable to witchcraft as they got thinner and narrower?
On 6/21/2026 2:14 AM, Jeroen Belleman wrote:
It is a well-known fact that all electronics runs on magic smoke.
The proof is that when the smoke leaks out, it stops working.
1. What did you mean by "magic smoke"? Electronic components
-a-a are usually sealed completely. They cannot smoke
-a-a like human! They don't even breathe.
2. When you said electronics, did you mean all electronic
-a-a components or just chips?
There was one report on USENET, of an ATX supply, where a live
flame shot out of the fan hole on the back of the ATX supply
(the supply was running of course and the fan spinning). If
the computer had been near curtains on that particular day, it
could have lit the curtains on fire. For the most part, other
ATX supplies do not fail exactly that way, so that one is an
"anomaly".
So if I tell you "don't put the back of your PC against the curtains",To be correct, do NOT block exhaust vent or the chimney of anything
that is the incident I am referring to.
On 6/21/2026 6:34 PM, Paul wrote:
There was one report on USENET, of an ATX supply, where a live
flame shot out of the fan hole on the back of the ATX supply
(the supply was running of course and the fan spinning). If
the computer had been near curtains on that particular day, it
could have lit the curtains on fire. For the most part, other
ATX supplies do not fail exactly that way, so that one is an
"anomaly".
Those are real, non-magical smoke, NOT "magic smnoke", as mentioned by "Jeroen Belleman"! :)
If you've seen the smoke from failed chip(s), it's not exactlyThat's not magic smoke, just a burnt fuse made from special metal
like other smoke. If two bus drivers (from the days of jelly bean chips)
are accidentally enabled at the same time, enough power is dissipated to crack at
least one of the two packages open, the die inside is piping-hot,
and a thin stream of black smoke emerges.
And that counts as the magic smoke. Once the smoke escapes, the
life cycle is complete. Into the waste bin they go :-)
And it is magic smoke, because the visual appearance of
the smoke, is different than how other materials smoke and burn.
Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
Are chips more vulnerable to witchcraft as they got thinner and narrower?
more vulnerable to cosmic rays, so chips used in outer space are still running lithography of 100 nm or so
On 6/21/2026 5:49 PM, Woozy Song wrote:
Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
Are chips more vulnerable to witchcraft as they got thinner and
narrower?
more vulnerable to cosmic rays, so chips used in outer space are still
running lithography of 100 nm or so
Space objects usually have shielding against all kinds of radiations, unless... UNLESS.... you just can't. The farther away from the Earth,
the lower the sheilding effect??? But BUT....
I wanna talk about witchcraft against wafers. Can tin foil do it? ;)
... this is nothing shocking. Look elsewhere for magic,
young Jedi. You will find it in the summer of 2026.
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