( ESNUG 314 Item 6 ) ---------------------------------------------- [3/17/99]
Subject: ( ESNUG 311 #10 ) Engineers Doing 'Chip Doodling' On The Raw Dies
> Hi John - It's Craig Matsumoto from EE Times. I've got a wacky story
> assignment and figured you might be the guy to turn to (uh, nothing
> personal....)
>
> I'm writing about microdrawings found on silicon chips. Whereas designers
> used to put their initials in the blank spaces of a design (so I'm told),
> some have now graduated to doing some elaborate pictures. Cartoon
> characters are popular -- Dilbert, Mickey, Waldo -- but some look like
> actual drawings. You know, drawings done by someone with real artistic
> talent.
>
> One thing I'm trying to find out is how common this is. Does everybody
> do it, sort of an EEs' graffiti? I'm also curious whether companies
> condone it.
>
> Finally, I've come across two nice urban myths that might amuse you: 1)
> Chip designers communicate with one another through hidden micromessages on
> the silicon ; 2) Companies will put their own logo on a chip, within the
> active circuitry, as copy protection -- so if you try to copy the design
> but remove the logo circuitry, the chip fails.
>
> Like I said, wacky stuff. Your readers have any thoughts or suggestions?
>
> - Craig Matsumoto
> Associate Editor, EE Times
From: Andrew Maccormack <andrewm@bristol.st.com>
John,
Our company has now banned doodles on chips, because we had a chip a few
years ago that was screwed up by some inductive effect of one of these
doodles. However, one of my RAM designer colleagues tells me that he signs
his name in his designs still, except he does it vertically, perpendicular
to the plane of the wafer, so that you'd need a cross section to spot it!
(i.e. the vertical lines in the writing are vias...!)
And we wonder why our projects are always late....
- Andrew R MacCormack
STMicroelectronics UK
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From: [ The Cat In The Hat ]
John,
True stories about logos on chips: Back in the 'old days" Intel (and others)
not only built their logo into the actual wiring, but sometimes left
half-completed contacts. There used to be (maybe still are) companies that
would reverse engineer chips (especially memory chips) by slicing and
photographing. The logos would keep them from just generating new masks
(as does registered mask copyright now), and the fake contacts would make
the reverse engineering much more difficult.
Another true story: I knew someone who was reverse engineering a design and
they were having trouble photographing a mask. They found a copy of the
mask on some of the company's promotional literature and used that as the
basis to complete the reverse engineering of the chips.
In the 80's at at least one large mini-computer company, some of the mask
designers were really good sketch artists, and occasionally had time on
their hands. As a result, all sorts of pictures (including Santa Claus
stomping lobsters) made their way onto various dies. (Usually these
pictures had something to do with the characteristics of the design team.)
This probably still goes on, but probably only in full-custom environments.
Copyrighted likenesses (Mickey Mouse, etc) became "uncool" to use in the
early 80s after Disney sued someone (maybe Intel?) for using Mickey's
likeness on a die.
Initials are still quite common - most ASIC design houses will put yours on
if you ask.
Of course, please protect my anonyminity.
- [ The Cat In The Hat ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: Steven Cochran <scochran@sr.hp.com>
Hi Craig/John,
Here's some info for your EE times article. Back in the days when I was
an analog GaAs IC designer, engineers would put logos on chips all of the
time. They ranged from landscapes to cartoon characters. The only
restriction was that if there was a copyright on the logo, then it had to
be removed when the circuit went to production.
Well everybody was happy with this arrangement until our internal fab
started rejecting *every* wafer of a particular design. It seems that the
people doing process inspections mistook the "head" that was part of a beer
stein logo for a fab defect. That pretty much put the kibosh on special
logos.
Nowdays the only thing that a designer can do to personalize his chip is
to name it. Designers name circuits for ex-lovers, New Testament
characters, their favorite ghost towns and so on.
- Steven Cochran
Hewlett Packard Microwave Technology Division Santa Rosa, CA
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: [ A Knight Who Formerly Said "Ni!" ]
John,
We have been putting "whimsical geometries" on chips since the dawn of
silicon planar processing, i.e. forever. Layout designers, who often fancy
themselves artists anyway, love it the most, but others also get into the
act. I put "Duke" from Doonesbury in metal before 1980. (There was only
one layer of metal then.)
"Art" is what you like. It's best if it embodies some aspect of that
development. Often we put our impression of the customer as an icon, or
of the product functionality.
Every place I've worked on custom chips has done it (ok, short list).
Most companies realize it doesn't hurt anything and tolerate it, although I
wouldn't be surprised if the more authoritarian, "we want obediance more
than creative thinking" companies, (like Moto) might forbid it.
> Finally, I've come across two nice urban myths that might amuse you: 1)
> Chip designers communicate with one another through hidden micromessages on
> the silicon ; 2) Companies will put their own logo on a chip, within the
> active circuitry, as copy protection -- so if you try to copy the design
> but remove the logo circuitry, the chip fails.
I think the myths are myths. I haven't even heard of people spending time
on anti-copy "gotchas" since the early days, now that we have adequate
copyright protection. The old "buried contact" was good for that then.
One notable improvement I have seen my collegues do recently is make the
image pass all Design Rule Checks (DRCs), yet still be visually appealing.
That way we don't have to remove the whimsical cell during DRC checks, which
is a reliability issue.
John, you may summarize my comments or excerpt them. Please remove my name.
I sent them to you and not Craig because you deserve the fun of all of them.
It's a fun subject, and I wish I read EE Times enough to see the final
article.
- [ A Knight Who Formerly Said "Ni!" ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: "Robert Milby" <Robert_Milby@Maxtor.COM>
I had just come across www.chipworks.com/SiliconGallery/07main.htm when I
was searching for an specs on an IC. I have, on my wall, a color print out
of "COWS on a 486DX4-120" (www.chipworks.com/SiliconGallery/07cows.htm)
Have you collected other links to chip art?
- Rob Milby
Maxtor
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: Russell Ray <rray@msai.mea.com>
A friend of mine was showing me a page the other day of this. He
can't remember where it was, but it was called silicon zoo or
something like that. I just did a search and found this.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/groucho.html
- Russell Ray
Mitsubishi Semiconductor Durham, NC
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: "Bryan J. Hunt" <bhunt@NTRnet.net>
John
By some strange coincidence, a friend of mine at Moto sent me this link
today ... http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/
- Bryan Hunt
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: charles@efficient.com (Charles Shelor)
John,
I assume that you have visited this site. But if you haven't; it is a
"must-see".
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/index.html
On one chip, I have personally placed my initials in an unused area. I
know a designer that did a 'tree-carving' type heart and intials of he
and his girlfriend.
- Charles F. Shelor
Efficient Networks Dallas, TX
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