On: Reverse-engineering a tiny 1980s chip that plays C...

[TedDoesntTalk]

> I dissolved the epoxy package in boiling sulfuric acid to expose the silicon die inside

What!!?

[kens → TedDoesntTalk]

The boiling sulfuric acid was not as scary as it sounds. I put the chip in a test tube with a small amount of sulfuric acid and heated it with a hot air gun outside. (I wore protective gloves and eye protection, and didn't breathe the fumes of course.) It took a couple of minutes to dissolve the epoxy.

[kragen → TedDoesntTalk]

I take it you prefer boiling colophony? Or are you a nitric man? Or are you, like me, surprised that even little old sulfuric could handle the job?

[textcortex → TedDoesntTalk]

I hope he did not inhale the fumes.

[authed → TedDoesntTalk]

I wonder why it needs to be boiling...

[SAI_Peregrinus → authed]

It's very slow with cool acid.