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Engineers hid a microscopic warning deep within an Infineon chip. Image courtesy Chipworks

Silicon chips have billions of transistors in every square inch. But sometimes there’s enough room left over for chip engineers to insert a little joke.

While using a scanning electron microscope to examine the microcircuitry of a chip found in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S phone, consulting company Chipworks discovered a surprise.

Underneath six layers of aluminum and silicon dioxide circuitry, almost at the level of the polysilicon wafer that underlies the entire chip, engineers concealed a tiny, tiny message.

Below the letters IFX (the stock symbol for Infineon, the company that makes the chip) is a tiny warning, made out of letters just two microns (2 µm) high:

IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU ARE MUCH TOO CLOSE

“You would never find this message unless you were seriously looking for it,” says Chipworks marketing manager Rob Williamson.

The chip, the Infineon PMB5703, provides radio-frequency transmission and reception functions relating to the devices’ baseband and 3G features.

The tiny message is hidden in the upper right corner of the Infineon chip, in the square highlighted here. (Click the image to see a large photo of the full chip.) Image courtesy Chipworks

Chipworks has put many chips under the scanning electron microscope and has discovered dozens of hidden images and messages like this one. Constructed of the same materials as the chip’s circuitry — silicon dioxide, aluminum, copper and the like — the artwork can include cartoons, icons, or merely the initials of the chips’ designers.

In many cases, this artwork is not only tiny, it’s completely invisible unless you are disassembling the chip. Before it found this message, for instance, Chipworks had to delaminate the chip, layer by layer, putting each layer under the microscope. The purpose of that project was to understand the chip’s architecture, not to find hidden messages, but sometimes these Easter eggs pop out.

The makers of the Infineon PMB5703 must have had some extra time on their hands, because Chipworks found no less than four other images on the chip, including a smiley face, a drummer, a baby duck  called Calimero and a smiling dragon named Grisu.
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“Hidden warning message found in Samsung’s Galaxy tablet“

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Clik Clok lets you wear an iPad 2 around the neck

Clik Clok, the Worst iPad 2 Accessory I’ve Ever Seen
Clik Clok is an iPad 2 accessory only Flava Flav—and diehard fans—could love. It is a big gold (or silver or red) chain necklace that attaches to the new iPad through its magnetic points. As soon as it’s clicked in, the clock app automatically launches, so you can… look like Flava Flav. Except with a $500 tablet around your neck instead of a large plastic clock. With all of the potential, practical uses for a high quality tablet, this is what you come up with?

Clik Clok [Pensa via Core77]

Samsung Reveals Series 2, 4, 6, and 9 Laptops
The 13.3-inch Core i5 Series 9 laptop will be available tomorrow for $1,649, providing some competition for the MacBook Air in the ultra portable market. A 128GB SSD and 4GB of RAM come standard, and a scaled down 11-inch model will be available in April. If you’re on a tighter budget, the Series 2 could be up your alley, with 12.5 and 14-inch screen models and a Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPU. The Series 4 and Series 6 notebooks feature additional security features (such as a fingerprint sensor) aimed at business and IT managers and options of Core i3, i5, or i7 processors.

Samsung Series 2, Series 4, and Series 6 Laptops and Samsung Series 9 Laptop [Engadget]

iPad 2 Gets… Blended
While many are still waiting to get a hold of the new iPad 2, the folks at Blendtec got their destructive little hands on one and videoed the response to their eternal question: “Will it blend?” Yes, yes it does. Le sigh.

Video: iPad 2 Gets “Will It Blend” Treatment [Tom’s Guide]

iPhone 5 Cases Pop Up Online, Adding Heft to Larger Display Rumors
iPhone 5 cases have started showing up on online marketplace Alibaba, which previously listed accurate iPad 2 cases prior to its reveal. The cases show the iPhone 5 following the same form factor as the iPhone 4 (as the engineer drawings seen last week also showed), but with edge-to-edge glass and a larger screen.

Purported iPhone 5 Cases Point to iPhone 4 Design, Possibly Larger Screen [9to5 Mac]

“Tweener” Tablet Hinted At By Nokia Executive
Nokia EVP Tero Ojanperä believes in a smaller form factor for tablets, an in-between smartphone/tablet size, that will be “a big driver in mobile games.” The company recently received a patent for a 10-inch tablet design, but may be rethinking their strategy after getting a generally negative response from European carriers.

Nokia to create new form factor tablet [My Nokia Blog via Slashgear]

It’s coming a little late in the game since many of these models have already started shipping, but Samsung has finally seen fit to reveal prices and approximate shipping dates for its 2011 HDTVs (both LCD and plasma), Blu-ray players, and home theater in a box systems. There’s no surprises as far as features from what we saw at CES, both plasma and LCD HDTV lines have new slim bezeled models, with new LED lighting tech for the LCDs and “Real Black” panels for the plasmas that have grown an inch in size this year. Meanwhile, the Blu-ray players have predictably gotten slimmer and faster, booting up in just three seconds. 3D and Smart TV features are standard on the majority of the new products this time around, check after the break for more details on what’s new and how much they’ll cost to start out.

Continue reading Samsung announces availability, pricing for 2011 HDTVs, Blu-ray players and HTIB

Samsung announces availability, pricing for 2011 HDTVs, Blu-ray players and HTIB originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so Samsung’s newest business laptops may not be as slim or light as their Series 9 brother, but they actually don’t look half bad. First up is the Series 2, and as you may expect, the 12.5- and 14-inch systems are the most budget ones of the bunch. We don’t have a price on the duo, but the smaller version packs an Intel Celeron processor while the 14-incher kicks it up to a Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPU. Sadly, we don’t have details on the exact configurations either, but they will be available with up to 4GB of RAM and 320GB hard drives. Jumping on up, the Series 4 keeps the same 12.5- and 14-inch chassis options, but provides new Sandy Bridge Core i3, i5, and i7 processor options as well as 7,200RPM hard drives and six-cell batteries.

Last but not least is the Series 6, which tops off the chain with some higher-end specs. Unlike the other two lines, the 6 comes with 14- and 15.6-inch SuperBright 300-nit displays — there’s also a 1600 x 900 resolution option on these, while the others keep it at the standard 1366 x 768. The Series 6 is also available with your choice of Core 2011 processors (i3, i5, and i7 all available) and finally jacks up the graphics power with an NVIDIA NVS 4200M GPU. All three systems are said to be made of “super-hard external casing,” have metal hinges, and pack 1.3 megapixel webcams. We don’t have any pricing details, but the 2 and 4 will be available in April and the Series 6 in May. Check out the pictures below or sneak past the break for more details.

Continue reading Samsung serves up Series 2, Series 4, and Series 6 laptops for serious, professional types

Samsung serves up Series 2, Series 4, and Series 6 laptops for serious, professional types originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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