The Buffalo Chip

The Buffalo Chip

We found a herd of buffalo (well, a small herd anyway) on this Hewlett-Packard 64-bit combinatorial divider, the Focus II Math chip. We don't know the significance of these bison-like silicon creatures, but they are some of the coolest buffalo that we have seen. One suggestion about the buffalo, which we feel is worth mentioning, was brought to our attention by Travis Thomas of Austin, Texas. Travis is under the opinion that the significance of the bison is to denote "buffalo chips", of which these are certainly one form. In fact, Travis' suggestion led us to change the title of this gallery entry.

The herd of buffalo was devised and executed onto the chip by HP engineer Dick Vlach, who tells us that the buffalo are dividing and leaving chips behind. John Carlson was the chief design engineer for this chip, and Dan Zuras is responsible for the crossword puzzle of designers' names that appears directly to the right of the buffalo (only a small portion of the puzzle is visible in this photomicrograph). This chip was designed by the Fort Collins, Colorado HP chip design team and the buffalo are a mascot of the nearby school, the University of Colorado.


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