Cell biology researcher Michael Davidson stumbled upon a little-known trend from a decade ago, when he discovered a microscopic etching of Waldo (of Where'’s Waldo fame) while photographing a Hewlett-Packard microchip. A little research revealed that engineers have been sneakily including all kinds of graphics and messages on their chips since the late 60'’s, competing with one another to create the most elaborate artwork. Davidson has catalogued some 300 individual chips bearing such images as Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian, and even a Russian message intended for Cold War-era Soviet operatives (who were attempting to reverse-engineer American technology). Unfortunately for microscopic-art lovers, the manufacturing difficulties that can arise from these silicon "Easter Eggs"” have made it all but impossible for modern engineers to continue the trend on the latest Pentium speed demons.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Where's Waldo? Why on your old CPU of course.
Cell biology researcher Michael Davidson stumbled upon a little-known trend from a decade ago, when he discovered a microscopic etching of Waldo (of Where'’s Waldo fame) while photographing a Hewlett-Packard microchip. A little research revealed that engineers have been sneakily including all kinds of graphics and messages on their chips since the late 60'’s, competing with one another to create the most elaborate artwork. Davidson has catalogued some 300 individual chips bearing such images as Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian, and even a Russian message intended for Cold War-era Soviet operatives (who were attempting to reverse-engineer American technology). Unfortunately for microscopic-art lovers, the manufacturing difficulties that can arise from these silicon "Easter Eggs"” have made it all but impossible for modern engineers to continue the trend on the latest Pentium speed demons.
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