The Sundial

The Sundial

This beautiful rendition of an ancient sundial was discovered near the clock circuitry on the Hewlett-Packard PA-7300LC microprocessor that bore the in-house nickname of "Velociraptor" and also contains this dinosaur creature on another part of the chip. HP manager Rick Butler has informed us that the writing beneath the dial says "VR fp 1995", which stands for VelociRaptor floating point. We are also told that the sundial was partially covered due to the metal being placed on different layers during fabrication. This explains the contrast in definition between the upper and lower portions of the sundial. HP chip designers chose the sundial to represent the clock on this chip because it is much faster than any watch and time does not move in discrete "ticks".


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