4 ms·
The most plausible theory I have seen so far it that this chip was embedded in the pcb below an empty pad for the backup flash that loads the management system
by opwieurposiu 8y ago
The most plausible theory I have seen so far it that this chip was embedded in the pcb below an empty pad for the backup flash that loads the management system firmware.
Three reasons this would work well:
1. The pad looks empty on casual inspection.
2. The data and power traces are already routed to that spot
3. The management system is already set up to load from this flash if it is populated.
- akiselev 8y agoThat's sounds like the best theory I've heard so far but I'm still skeptical. I've only worked with simple embedded PCB components like resistors or an inductor substrate, but in my experience if there are high speed signals anywhere near the passive, the design has to account for it from the beginning. There's a few clever ways to monkey patch unpackaged silicon into an existing board but AFAIK they all require access to some precise equipment to create a space for the wafer and wire bond it without causing some obvious physical modifications. Edit: Based on other posts in this topic, it appears that the chip wasn't embedded in the PCB - it was just placed on top of an empty footprint for recovery flash. If that's the case, then this hack is technologically uninteresting.
- teknologist 8y agoIt looks to be in this position (on an empty pad) in the first two frames of the animated graphic on the article's page, too.