This is so cool! "Dissecting" a processor like this could be a fun educational activity to do in schools similar to dissecting a frog, but without the animal rights issues.
Personally, I think everyone should try opening up a chip. It's easy (if the chip isn't in epoxy) and fun to look inside. You need a metallurgical microscope to examine the chip closely, but you can see interesting features even with the naked eye.
I didn't know there is such a thing as a metallurgical microscope. What makes them different from biological microscopes? And what is there primary purpose? I am assuming they don't make microscopes just for dissecting chips.
Discarded RFID cards and the like provide a practically free source of minimally-encapsulated ICs, also often made on an old large process that's amenable to microscope examination.
Decapping a processor produces toxic waste, which has to be disposed of. Processors, properly handled, last a lot longer than frogs, and can be re-used again and again: to a first approximation, processors do not wear out. I would expect that manufacturing a new processor causes more suffering to more frogs than is caused by killing a frog for dissection.
That said: we have video players in our pockets. Sure, dissecting one frog might be a more educational experience than watching somebody else dissect a frog, but is it more educational than watching 20 well-narrated dissections? I suspect not. I don't think we need to do either.
kens|1 year ago
Harmohit|1 year ago
userbinator|1 year ago
wizzwizz4|1 year ago
That said: we have video players in our pockets. Sure, dissecting one frog might be a more educational experience than watching somebody else dissect a frog, but is it more educational than watching 20 well-narrated dissections? I suspect not. I don't think we need to do either.