Reading Silicon: How to Reverse Engineer Integrated Circuits

Ken Shirriff has seen the insides of more integrated circuits than most people have seen bellybuttons. (This is an exaggeration.) But the point is, where we see a crazy jumble of circuitry, Ken sees a riddle to be solved, and he's got a method that guides him through the madness.

In his talk at the 2016 Hackaday SuperConference, Ken stepped the audience through a number of famous chips, showing how he approaches them and how you could do the same if you wanted to, or needed to. Reading an IC from a photo is not for the faint of heart, but with a little perseverance, it can give you the keys to the kingdom. We're stoked that Ken shared his methods with us, and gave us some deeper insight into a handful of classic silicon, from the Z80 processor to the 555 timer and LM7805 voltage regulator, and beyond.

Read the article:
http://hackaday.com/?p=237161

Learn more about Ken Shirriff:
http://www.righto.com/

Learn more about the Hackaday SuperConference:
https://hackaday.io/superconference/