Xref: utzoo rec.humor:9673 sci.electronics:2048
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!splut!jay
From: jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: New Technologies
Message-ID: <360@splut.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 88 14:42:18 GMT
References: <7944@sunybcs.UUCP> <2407@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Followup-To: sci.electronics
Distribution: na
Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, TX
Lines: 29
Summary: Not all EPROMs are destroyed by incandescing.

> >In article <2407@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, lazarus@athena.mit.edu (Michael Friedman) writes:
> >> On the true story front, would you believe an EPROM flash bulb?
> >> I hooked up an EPROM upside down. A flash of light bright enough to
> >> hurt my eyes came out the quartz window on the chip.
> >
> >So: we all wanna know! What was in the EPROM when you put it in right?

True story:
Once, I was working on a dedicated micro project. We were at the stage where
we had to test program mode by burning a new EPROM (we were using Intel
2716s), stuffing it into the socket on the board, and seeing what happened.

After one revision, I went to the test machine, powered it down, stuffed the
ROM in, powered it up, and waited to see what it did.

I realized that I'd put the ROM in backwards when it struck me that Intel
didn't put power indicators inside their devices.

The upshot? After a cycle of erase/fill-with-zeros/erase, the ROM worked
perfectly. To my knowledge, it's still in service, 7 years later.

(Followups to sci.electronics, and please edit the newsgroups: line; this
isn't funny any more.)

-- 
Jay Maynard, K5ZC (@WB5BBW)...>splut!< | GEnie: JAYMAYNARD  CI$: 71036,1603
uucp: {uunet!nuchat,academ!uhnix1,{ihnp4,bellcore,killer}!tness1}!splut!jay
Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
The opinions herein are shared by none of my cats, much less anyone else.