Cool Images Hidden on Silicon Chips

The world of microchip design is a fascinating one. The process is intense: high-level logic design, then automated development of logic gates by the millions to encode them in microscopic size on the silicon.

Because the photolithographic process costs the same amount no matter how much silicon and aluminum you lay down, designers have the freedom to fill any tiny blank space with whatever they want. These designs can't be seen with the naked eye, but pioneering detectives have used microscopes to hunt them down and share them with the world.

These images had a purpose, though. If a competitor released a product that copied them, the original designers could check for the doodles as proof.

The habit of hiding secret images in silicon isn't quite as big as it once was after the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 ensured automatic copyright of chip masks, but we're sure designers are still doing it. You just have to be on the lookout with a microscope and lots of free time. In this gallery, we'll spotlight some of the coolest, funkiest, and quirkiest designs hidden at tiny size on silicon chips. Many of these images come from Florida State University's Silicon Zoo project, which archives hundreds of examples.

1. Where's Waldo

The Silicon Zoo project happened almost by chance, when researchers were examining the surface of a chip and discovered the head of children's book character Waldo gazing back at him. The discovery of a character well-known for hiding was too perfect to be mere circumstance.

2. Pit Viper

The chip designers at Hewlett-Packard are notorious in the industry for their incredible hidden images. One of the coolest is this fearsome-looking viper with a logo that was concealed on an early 90s machine. The same chip also featured 20 designers' initials as well as the message "If you can read this....you are too damn close!"

3. Moose Boy

Decorated chips can be found all over the place, even in your cell phone. This perplexing artwork was secreted in a Motorola RF IC Nokia 5190 phone. Who "Moose Boy" is remains a mystery; he looks like he could be a mascot for a Canadian fast food chain or something.

4. Wedding Announcement

If you're a super techie, what better way to celebrate an eternal union than by etching your wedding announcement on a silicon chip? Design engineer Yeuk-Hai Shark Mok put the photo of himself and new wife Ellen on a Silicon Graphics MIPS R10000 microprocessor in 1996.

5. T. Rex With Guitar

A lot of the inspiration for chip doodles comes from clip art, and this is one of the weirdest we've ever seen. Originally found in the collection that came from early multimedia software HyperCard for the Mac, this guitar-playing Tyrannosaurus was unearthed in silicon form on a Silicon Graphics MIPS R12000 chip.

6. Martians

If you were designing a custom-imaging chip for the Spirit and Discovery rovers that would be sent to the Red Planet, what hidden treasures would you etch on it? A pair of designers at NASA, Mark Wadsworth and Tom Elliott, chose the iconic "Marvin the Martian" cartoon character to return to his home planet.

7. Sonic the Hedgehog

We want our processors to go fast, so what better mascot than Sega's hyper-speed hedgehog? This image of Sonic's head was discovered on a digital-image processor manufactured by Analog Devices, one of the most prolific chip art producers.

8. Pepsi Ad

Sometimes chip art is created simply for bragging rights. How else to explain the world's smallest Pepsi advertisement on a Hewlett-Packard circuit, measuring just 750 microns wide? Designer Craig Robson was responsible for many different hidden pictures during his time at HP, but this might be his best.

9. Crayon

The largest chip drawing discovered to date, this realistic Crayola crayon from a Hewlett-Packard support chip measures a massive 1.5mm in length. That's a little bit bigger than a single grain of table salt. The etching comes from a graphics chip named "Artist."

10. Anubis

The Egyptian god of the dead seems like a weird pick to emblazon on a computer chip, but the images of Anubis that flank the mask alignment targets on the Silicon Graphics MIPS R12000 chip look pretty damn cool.

11. Milhouse

Pop-culture characters of all stripes show up in chip art, but who would have thought that Milhouse Van Houten would merit a spot? Bart's nerdy friend wound up etched into a Silicon Image Sil154CT64 digital transmitter.

12. Rolex Watch

Located inside the clock circuits of the Hewlett-Packard PA-7100 microprocessor, this insanely detailed rendering of a Rolex watch is one of the most visually complex entries. Each "pixel" of the image is made with what designers call "via shafts" that sink through the body of the chip. The watch picture contains over 5,000 of them.

13. Watch Salesman

What is it with HP and watches? This etching from the PA-RISC 7100LC Hummingbird microprocessor chip features a classic caricature of a trench-coated salesman displaying his wares. These are actually "Lorexes," a name familiar to anyone who's bought watches on eBay or in Chinatown, and the reference is to a redesigned floating-point circuitry system.

14. Mr. T

Celebrity portraiture at microscopic size is an underrated art form, as this hilariously weird caricature of A-Team star Mr. T shows. The goofy bust is on a Dallas Semiconductor single-chip T1 transceiver, which explains the "T1" on his dookie rope medallion.

15. Royal Flush

Many pieces of chip art represent the team's feelings about the project they've just completed. By looking at the tiny royal flush (with an ace up the sleeve) that hides on the Digital Equipment Company CVAX microprocessor, you can tell that they really hoped they had a winning hand. The processor was intended to be the first chip that booted VMS on first pass silicon.

16. Thor

I couldn't skip this one. Possibly the most detailed and evocative chip art in existence, this bust of the Marvel Comics god of thunder is incredibly large at a little over a millimeter square. Graphics designer April Comer did the portrait for the Hewlett-Packard chip and designer Darrin Miller turned it into a bitmap.