Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: EPROM erasers
Message-ID: <1991Feb10.204035.25368@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5001@acorn.co.uk> <16131@milton.u.washington.edu> <1991Feb10.021307.10532@uhura.neoucom.EDU>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 1991 20:40:35 GMT

In article <1991Feb10.021307.10532@uhura.neoucom.EDU> wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) writes:
>... a vendor had a prototype board with untaped windows
>on the firmware EPROMs.  A trade paper photographer snapped a picutre,
>the flash of which trashed the contents of the EPROMs, causing
>much embarassment for the vendor ...

I'm surprised to hear that it actually erased them; I wouldn't have thought
there would be enough accumulated dose from a normal flash.  There are a
number of cases of such flashes causing *transient* malfunctions, though,
and some EPROM manufacturers go so far as to refuse to guarantee normal
operation with the windows uncovered -- most any "naked" silicon is
photosensitive to some degree.
-- 
"Read the OSI protocol specifications?  | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
I can't even *lift* them!"              |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry