[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > > 1) I don't know of any device that can 'see how a chip worked'.
>
> There are devices that allow you to reverse-engineer a chip through
> physical means. You can literally shave off one thin layer at a time,
> and use a high power microscope, and then apply image-analysis algorithms
> to build masks to make chip duplicates and to determine how it works.
>
> /Andrew
Excactly what I've written:
"The only way to see how a chip works is to put it under a micro-scope,
make a foto of the metal-layer, etch this layer away, make a foto of the
next metal-layer... etc.. This is a time-consuming and a very difficult
process which doesn't give the expected results in 99.9999% of all cases.
Back-Engineering in the chip industrie is almost impossible!"
I work in the micro-electronics world. The most favourite process used at
the moment is HCMOS7 (in the digital world). In the digital world, the
desing-complexity doubles each two years (Moore's law which still holds up).
What makes this possible? Simple, each two years, we come up with a new
process that is smaller (0.5-0.35-0.25-0.18 micro-meter). Maybee it's possible
with a 120 layer digital IC, to shave of each layer, analyse and so build a
3D-image of a chip. But one thing is sure, that only gives you a 'flatened'
representation of all the combined FSM's that are behind the design. I yet
have to see the first workstation that has the capacity to analyse this
flatened FSM and to produce the HDL-code for it!
I've never heard of reverse-engineer. But I've heard of espionage. Ie, it
seems to be much easyer to steal the design than to reverse-engineer. (And
I bet it's much easyer!)
What you say, can be done for analog ICs. Why? Simple, you just can't make
analog electronics smaller. (You can't put 5mW MOS-FETS inside a 2x40W IC
amplifier!).
Cheers,
Ralph -> ever tried to reverse engineer a 20 milion+ design?
--
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Ralph Smeets Functional Verification Centre Of Competence - CMG
Voice: (+33) (0)4 76 58 44 46 STMicroelectronics
Fax: (+33) (0)4 76 58 40 11 5, chem de la Dhuy
Mobile: (+33) (0)6 82 66 62 70 38240 MEYLAN
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] FRANCE
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"For many years, mankind lived just like the animals. And then
something happened that unleashed the powers of our imagination:
We learned to talk."
-- Stephen Hawking, later used by Pink Floyd --
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