For those that are not up to date on the trapped-smoke theory Rich mentioned. (I picked this up from some HP Technicans years ago at the HP inkjet division).
Every electronic component that functions works on a precise amount of "trapped-smoke". This trapped smoke is what keeps your Pentium, and Monitor on your computer working. Or in a car, keeps your radio and alternator working. If somthing happens to cause the device to release the trapped smoke, it is known as "letting all the smoke out". Once you have let all the smoke out of a device, it will no longer function. In some cases you can release a small amount of smoke, and a device will still operate. I have tested this theory with many modern IC's and even some wire, and like most working theories, have yet to disprove it. I work testing IC's for a living, and once every year or so, will do somthing stupid to release trapped smoke from some fancy IC prototype, which will in turn make me real popular with some companies engineering department, which had loaned me the super dooper new prototype to evaluate/test. There seems to be some relationship to how important and expensive the IC's are. For example, it seems to be easier to let the smoke out of a chip that goes into a $500 graphics card, than it is to get the smoke to leave a $10 chip. -- Ross > Just trying not to test the trapped-smoke theory . . . > > > Rich H. Meyer > cpt...@npcc.net > Phone 574-642-3963 > Cell 574-202-3920 > -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
