Stork Cuda (Darkfield)

Stork Cuda (Darkfield)

Nested within the complex circuitry of a Motorola 68HC05PG microcontroller sits a silicon stork carrying a new baby. The chip housing the stork is known as a cuda integrated circuit, and was recovered from an Apple motherboard and uncapped by Antoine Bercovici in Paris. Cudas are microcontrollers that serve as the managing circuitry for the Apple Desktop Bus and the computer real-time clock. The chip supervises system power and maintains the parameter random access memory (also referred to as the PRAM), as well as managing and maintaining information regarding all system resets from various commands (for example, keyboard restart, loss of power, and software restart). This chip also contains the Pacific Gas and Electric logo.

View this silicon artwork under differential interference contrast and brightfield illumination.


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