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My uncle's fifteen minutes of fame
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Morgrim
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Joined: 19 Mar 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:02 pm Post subject: My uncle's fifteen minutes of fame Reply with quote
My mom pointed this out to me the other day. Its my uncle's handiwork back when he worked at TI! The best part of the story is that he always dreamed of building his own sailboat, and shortly after leaving Texas Instruments he moved to Cali and did just that. He built a sailboat of his own design and sailed it to Hawaii, where he lived for a year or so, then sailed on to Samoa solo where he met his future wife, who sailed back to Hawaii with him. I can just see him doodling this sailboat while he fantasized about making his dream come true.



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This crude rendition of a sailboat is the oldest silicon doodling that we have discovered to date. It was found on a 1970s vintage Texas Instruments chip of unknown function and the boat's rudder is one of the smallest integrated circuitry features present on the chip. Average transistor dimensions on this chip are between 10-15 microns and the entire chip is about the size of a pinhead. As simple as this sailboat is, it reached the maximum complexity available to technology of the period. We are told by HP chip design engineer Dick Vlach that the designer responsible for this sailboat is Gene Hoff, an engineer for Texas Instruments, and that the sailboat represents a Hobiecat.


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Ceinwyn ab'Arawn
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
That's pretty damned awesome and admirable. Reach for your dreams! Thank you for sharing. Smile
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TayM'real
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:16 am Post subject: Reply with quote
That is awesome. Since the age of programing/microchips etc.. people have tried to put their own watermarks on their stuff. I personally put my gamertag in my programs usually in unusual ways Smile...to see him put his mark on a microchip - f'n awesome!
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Cear Dallben ZOG
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Joined: 19 Jan 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:40 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
Love it!
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Cal Hurst
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Joined: 29 Dec 2003
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:20 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
That's cool as hell man.
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