Silicon Reverse Engineering: From Die Shots to Digital Logic Analysis

Explore silicon reverse engineering through a 37-minute conference talk from the 38th Chaos Communication Congress that delves into decoding proprietary chips and their hidden features. Learn how to uncover secrets within black box silicon chips, including internal ROMs, security features, and audio DSP algorithms, using microscopic analysis and acid dissolution techniques. Follow along as a software developer shares their journey into investigating a 1986 digital synthesizer's mysterious custom chips, demonstrating how gate array structures from the 80s and 90s can be analyzed to understand and recreate their functionality. Discover practical methods for identifying different chip components, extracting mask ROMs, and automatically generating Verilog code from die shots, making complex reverse engineering accessible even without deep electronics knowledge. Master techniques that have enabled the preservation and emulation of vintage arcade games, sound chips, and security ICs.