Dave Minkler wrote:

> Much harder to get to the die in a plastic part than a windowed part.

  Eh?  Didn't you just assert that nitric acid (fuming) removed it
easily?

> A few years ago people were trying to use electron microscope
> techniques to detect voltage levels in circuits but at the time these
> methods were not very fast.

  So with a PIC, you can slow the clock down to zero if you want to.
The marvels of CMOS technology.  And I'll bet a (PIC-based?)
*programmable* electron microprobe would make it much faster!
--
  Cheers,
        Paul B.