Grant Coady wrote:

> They don't make chips like they used to[1]: Years ago I was called down
> to factory floor -- i8748 EPROM uC not working... Turn it on and the
> corner chip die power connects glowing red under chip window...
Those were VERY good, at least you could "see" what you wrote in...
>
> Chip in backwards, turn off power, put chip in right way around and
> it worked. (reverse connect power to chip forward biases the substrate
> parasitic diode), this was in mid to late eighties, soft power supply.
This is called "reverse engineering"
>
> [1] Now I'm starting to sound like an old fart.
Maybe we should start a club.
>
> --Grant.
>
Stanislaw