[OT] - Imagine if Intel started doing this?!!

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

<SNIP>

A new way of making silicon explode could mean anyone trying to use a
stolen
laptop or mobile will be confronted by this message: "This machine is
stolen
and will self-destruct in ten seconds ... ".

Until now scientists have only managed to make silicon go bang by mixing it
with either liquid oxygen or nitric acid. But Michael Sailor and his
colleagues at the University of California in San Diego have found a way to
blow up silicon chips using an electrical signal.

They say their method could be used to fry circuitry in devices that fall
into the wrong hands. For instance, the American spy plane impounded by
China last year could have used it to destroy its secret electronics
systems.In a stolen mobile phone, the network would send a trigger signal
to
the part of the chip containing the gadolinium nitrate
"detonator",
triggering the explosion. "We have shown that you can store this stuff
and
detonate it at will," says Sailor.


</SNIP>

Scary! - imagine CPU's with expiry dates!! (Blade Runner??)

Paul G.

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