Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!dartvax!northstar58!hitch
From: hitch@northstar58 (Charles Y. Hitchcock III)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: chips into powered sockets
Message-ID: <23655@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 14 Aug 90 12:55:32 GMT
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: charles.hitchcock@dartmouth.edu (Charlie Hitchcock)
Distribution: sci.electronics
Organization: Thayer School of Engg, Dartmouth College
Lines: 13


I have come to believe that plugging in a (CMOS) chip
into a powered socket can potentially damage the chip.
After all, doesn't AT&T use special technology to let
them hot-swap a board in a telephone switching system?

Now that I have an application where I want to insert
and remove a chip into/from a powered socket, I am hard-
pressed to explain what electrical phenomena would occur
that could do damage.

Is hot-swapping a chip a bad idea?  Why?  What do
commercial chip test systems do?