Reading Silicon - How to Reverse Engineer Integrated Circuits

Explore the fascinating world of integrated circuit reverse engineering in this 32-minute conference talk by Ken Shirriff at the 2016 Hackaday SuperConference. Dive into the intricate process of decoding famous chips, from the Z80 processor to the 555 timer and LM7805 voltage regulator. Learn about register files, instruction decoding, ALUs, MOS transistors, and various logic gates. Discover the history behind the Sinclair Scientific Calculator and Intel's shift-register memory. Gain insights into analog chips, bipolar transistors, and the use of interactive chip viewers. Understand the techniques for obtaining high-resolution die photos using metallurgical microscopes and photo stitching software. Explore methods for accessing chip dies, including downloading existing photos or working with epoxy-free chips. Follow along as Ken demonstrates his current project: analyzing the 8008 processor.

Intro
Register File
Instruction decoding
ALU (Arithmetic-Logic Unit)
MOS transistors
NAND gate
What do gates really look like?
NOR gate
Gates get weird in the ALU
Sinclair Scientific Calculator (1974)
Built instruction-level simulator
Intel shift-register memory (1970)
Analog chips LIBERTY
What bipolar transistors really look like
Interactive chip viewer
Unusual current mirror transistors
7805 voltage regulator
Die photos: Metallurgical microscope
Stitch photos together for high-resolution
Hugin takes some practice
Motorola 6820 PIA chip
How to get to the die?
Easy way: download die photos
Acid-free way: chips without epoxy
Current project: 8008 analysis