This is pretty mind blowing. I’m barely grasping the idea of being capable of manufacturing something _this_ small. But reversing the process is straight up there with unscrambling eggs. Just wow.
From an image processing perspective I think this is just like reading a 2-d barcode like data matrix or QR or maybe reading a punchcard.
Getting to the image though is an act of physical heroism that he builds up to gradually (e.g. how can you really be so afraid of H2SO4?) to the point where he is mixing acids with bleach at which point I'm intimidated.
Two things make extracting the data more complex than something like a QR code or punchcard. First, the image quality from a die usually isn't perfect. There are often a few spots where it's hard to figure out visually, let alone with software.
Second, the ROM layout isn't documented and there are a lot of possibilities. Big-endian or little-endian? Is a transistor a 1 or 0? What direction does the layout go? Are columns or rows more significant bits? So you end up with 2×2×2×... possibilities for interpretation. And that's assuming the ROM layout doesn't have something entirely unexpected, which happens quite often.
H2SO4 isn't that intimidating. Neither is HCl. HF is VERY intimidating, if you're smart. And you *REALLY* don't want to encounter the anhydrous gaseous form.
I would say SO2 fumes is not something you really want to be to relaxed with. But I agree with HCl, its nothing too scary compared. HF is scary as shit, even the low conc i use which is like 1.5%, im still in full PPE gear, even a respirator, it doesn't fume at room temp but still makes me that nervous.
It's a bit harder than that. 2D Barcodes, Data Matrices, QR Codes, all explicitly have a lot of redundancy built in for resilient error correction. A chip has none of that, it's designed to do its electrical work sitting in a package forever, not to be looked at by anything or anyone.
And then you have separate layers with vastly different physical (and photographic) properties, and the answers to any questions is often in how they interact...
