Microchip graffiti, or Chip art

What is microchip graffiti or chip art?

These are microscopic designs, patterns and inscriptions that engineers apply directly to the silicon substrates of integrated circuits during the design and manufacturing process. Imagine tiny images, tens or hundreds of times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, imprinted into the structure of a chip. Owl, bullet fish, elephant Ganesha, Yin-Yang symbol are just some of the amazing findings found on real chips.

The phenomenon of chip art originated at the dawn of the semiconductor era, in the 70s and 80s of the last century. In those days, the development of microcircuits was more of a craft business than an automated one. Engineers hand-drew circuits on large sheets of paper and then painstakingly transferred them onto photomasks to produce chips. The process was labor intensive, but left room for creativity. In the breaks between calculations and drawings, the developers dabbled in adding miniature pictures, inscriptions, and sometimes entire plot compositions to the free areas between the elements of the diagram.

At first, this silicon samizdat had a purely practical significance. Before the adoption of the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act in the United States in 1984, the presence of a characteristic pattern on a chip made it possible to prove that competitors had copied the design. After all, if exactly the same doodle was found on a “suspiciously similar” microcircuit, this clearly indicated theft, and not honest development. A kind of mark of the author, in simple terms.

But very soon chip art outgrew its purely utilitarian function. For engineers, drawing on silicon has become a way of self-expression, an outlet in the routine of endless calculations and checks. Many people put special meanings into the tiny pictures. Someone thus perpetuated the memory of important events as the successful completion of a project. others portrayed characters from their favorite books and films, video games and comics, while others simply had a blast, coming up with funny mini-comics and visual puns on technical topics.

*Yuk-Hai Shark Mok placed a photo of himself and his wife Ellen on a MIPS R10000 chip from Silicon Graphics.*

Godzilla was discovered hiding on a Silicon Graphics MIPS R10000 microprocessor.

And all this splendor is not simply applied to paper or a monitor screen, but literally imprinted into silicon, material, reliable. An engineering analogue of cave painting, a coded message for future generations of technology researchers. After all, the creators of graffiti understood perfectly well that their creations would remain inside the chips for many years, maybe even centuries.

The first person to open the world of chip art to the general public was Michael Davidson, a researcher in the field of optical microscopy from Florida State University. In the 1990s, while examining sections of various microcircuits under a microscope, Davidson unexpectedly came across strange patterns that were unlike ordinary chip elements.

At first he thought that these were some kind of reverse engineering protection systems. But after the publication of photographs of mysterious artifacts on the Internet, Davidson was contacted by the graffiti authors themselves – engineers who secretly entertained themselves with silicon painting.

The scientist’s unusual hobby attracted the attention of a wide audience, generated a wave of publications in the media and served as an impetus for the creation of the legendary website in 1998 Silicon Zoo, the world's first online catalog of chip art. Thanks to Davidson and his associates, the hidden world of engineering folklore was revealed to an astonished public for the first time. People looked at the strange patterns with delight, unraveled their meaning, and built theories.

Thus, the portrait of Waldo, a character from the popular children's puzzle book series “Where's Wally?” in the 90s, became widely known. A schematic image of a lanky man in glasses and a striped cap was found on the GPU chip of one of the first gaming PCs. Game fans immediately dubbed the discovery an “Easter egg from the developers.”

The Silicon Zoo project arose almost by accident when researchers, studying the surface of a chip under a microscope, suddenly noticed that none other than Waldo, the hero of the popular children's game book and TV series of the same name from the 90s, was looking at them. — *Project* Silicon Zoo arose almost by accident when researchers, studying the surface of a chip under a microscope, suddenly noticed that none other than Waldo, the hero of the popular children's game book and TV series of the same name in the 90s, was looking at them.

The Silicon Zoo collection grew and was replenished with new exhibits. Engineers and curious people from all over the world sent Davidson chips in hopes of discovering hidden treasures on them. By the early 2000s, the catalog included more than 300 artifacts – from simple symbols and inscriptions to complex multi-figure compositions.

Chip art art reached its peak sometime between the late 1980s and early 2000s. It was during these years that most of the most famous doodles, now considered classics of the genre, were created.

*Art on chips can be found in the most unexpected places, even inside a mobile phone. Here, for example, is a mysterious image found on the Motorola RF chip from the Nokia 5190.*

*What do you think of a dinosaur playing guitar on Silicon Graphics' MIPS R12000 processor?*

*Sonic (Sega) was found on a processor from Analog Devices.*

*Bart Simpson's friend flaunts the Sil154CT64 from Silicon Image*

*This portrait by artist April Comer is on a Hewlett-Packard chip.*

Alas, since then the craft of silicon painters has gradually faded away. The reason for this is the rapid development of CAD, tightening control of the production process, increased requirements for efficiency and production time. And yet the tradition of chip art has not completely died. Even now, some enthusiastic engineers manage to smuggle either a funny face or the emblem of their favorite rock band onto silicon. And the fact that the risk of graffiti being discovered is now higher than ever only adds to the urgency of the process. Sketches are carefully thought out so as not to stand out from the background of the diagram, they are disguised as functional elements.

The new generation of chip art lovers, formed in the last decade, deserves special mention. These are no longer the graffiti authors themselves, but rather treasure hunters who draw inspiration from ancient artifacts. People like Ken Schipper, better known as Capricorn Semiconductor, obsessively collect and catalog old chips in the hope of finding lost masterpieces of silicon folklore. They buy circuit boards from decommissioned equipment on eBay, spend hours working on microscopes, and generously share their finds on social networks.

Thanks to the efforts of these enthusiasts, the art of chip art is experiencing a rebirth today. Digitized and cataloged doodles become available to a wide audience and receive new life in the form of prints, stickers, and design elements. Online and offline exhibitions, competitions, and retrospectives are organized. Articles, videos and even documentaries appear devoted to the history and aesthetics of silicon samizdat. A full-length documentary film was released in 2024 The Chip Art Documentary, telling about the heroes and events of the chip art movement.

Let the chip art itself have long since sunk into oblivion, along with the technical processes and chip development routes of the last century. Let modern engineers be busy with completely different, much more mundane matters. But the phenomenon of chip art, as part of digital folklore, is alive and continues to attract the attention of people around the world. It reminds us that behind the cold and faceless matter of technology there are always living people with their dreams, fantasies and natural desire for beauty.

Next time, when disassembling an old calculator, TV or mobile phone, do not rush to send the printed circuit boards for scrap. Carefully examine the chips under a microscope or at least through a powerful magnifying glass. You never know, maybe you'll be lucky enough to find a real masterpiece of the silicon Renaissance!