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For a fun set of reads on this ("Label the chips as what the buyer wants regardless of what they actually are") from a decade ago, Sparkfun got some "fake" ATMe

by Syonyk 6y ago

For a fun set of reads on this ("Label the chips as what the buyer wants regardless of what they actually are") from a decade ago, Sparkfun got some "fake" ATMega 328p chips in that, in fact, were nothing remotely resembling an ATMega 328p. In the words of someone after they'd puzzled out the puzzle, "...so it looks like that die in the picture is pre-release engineering material. Where the hell did you find that?" https://www.sparkfun.com/news/350 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/350 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/364 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/364 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/384 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/384 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/395 https://www.sparkfun.com/news/395

Scoundreller 6y ago
A proper scale should be able to detect weak effort fraud like this.
- Syonyk 6y ago
  A proper scale can detect all sorts of weak effort fraud. Years back, I talked to someone who had done some analysis on some of the "fake silver/gold" bars floating around places (I think they were common on Silk Road for a while?). Apparently some of the people faking metal bars didn't actually bother learning what a "Troy Ounce" was. There was a "10 oz" bar that was 10 ounces - 283.5 grams. Except, in metals, "oz" means Troy Ounce - so it should have been 311 grams. You could literally feel that it was light if you were used to dealing with metals.
  - dan-robertson 6y ago
    I suspect it wasn’t really trying to defraud people who know what a Troy Ounce is. I’d find it believable if people thought fake bars at 311g were frauds for not weighing 10oz.
routerl 6y ago
This was a great read, thanks!
jandrese 6y ago
I'm guessing it's a sample run and the company realized there was a bug in the silicon and told the fab to destroy the rest of the samples. Instead someone at the fab set them aside for the future when they need some raw material to scam people with. I find it strange that whoever decided to do this kept the correct datecode on the packaging. Presumably they didn't label them as ATMega 328s until the order came in, it would have been trivial to change the datecode to something reasonable for that chip.
danmur 6y ago
That's super interesting, thank you!

by Syonyk 6y ago

Scoundreller 6y ago

A proper scale should be able to detect weak effort fraud like this.

Syonyk 6y ago
A proper scale can detect all sorts of weak effort fraud. Years back, I talked to someone who had done some analysis on some of the "fake silver/gold" bars floating around places (I think they were common on Silk Road for a while?). Apparently some of the people faking metal bars didn't actually bother learning what a "Troy Ounce" was. There was a "10 oz" bar that was 10 ounces - 283.5 grams. Except, in metals, "oz" means Troy Ounce - so it should have been 311 grams. You could literally feel that it was light if you were used to dealing with metals.
- dan-robertson 6y ago
  I suspect it wasn’t really trying to defraud people who know what a Troy Ounce is. I’d find it believable if people thought fake bars at 311g were frauds for not weighing 10oz.

routerl 6y ago

This was a great read, thanks!

jandrese 6y ago

I'm guessing it's a sample run and the company realized there was a bug in the silicon and told the fab to destroy the rest of the samples. Instead someone at the fab set them aside for the future when they need some raw material to scam people with. I find it strange that whoever decided to do this kept the correct datecode on the packaging. Presumably they didn't label them as ATMega 328s until the order came in, it would have been trivial to change the datecode to something reasonable for that chip.

danmur 6y ago

That's super interesting, thank you!