[...] if a voltage is applied to a seemingly unused pin, another pin suddenly begins broadcasting the internal state of the chip after every stage of the algori

[...] if a voltage is applied to a seemingly unused pin, another pin suddenly begins broadcasting the internal state of the chip after every stage of the algorithm. That sounds like a JTAG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Test_Action_Group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Test_Action_Group ) scan for test purposes. Basic idea is that registers on logic block boundaries are turned into a shift register that pumps out the internal state.