>I have seen the bond wires on a JW pic GLOW , and another which melted
>itself into a plastic prototyping board, and both times had the chip
>still work afterwards. This sort of thing gives a lot of confidence in
>the PICs robustness, although not recommended in production!

I think I may have related in the past how an outfit I worked for built some
hardware to program EPROMs using a minicomputer which was somewhat flaky. The
program pulse was generated and timed in software. One day the inevitable
happened and the software stopped leaving the EPROM in the "I am going to cook"
state. It's wires also glowed red hot.

But the other ones I remember was during my apprenticeship. The company built
and serviced marine R/T equipment. These used 2N441 series transistors in the
inverter that supplied HT to the transmitter output stages, and also for the
modulator drive. These transistors were among the original germanium power
transistors, and packaged in monstrous round stud mount cans. The salt air would
eat away at the top cover on the can leaving the chip inside exposed to the
ambient environment. On more than one occasion these units were brought into the
workshop, still in full working condition, to have these transistors replaced,
because of this corrosion. Life on a small fishing boat was not kind to these
devices, and it always amazed us that they kept running despite the gaping holes
in the can - when I say gaping I mean big enough for most people to put at least
their little finger in, so the chip inside had been exposed for some time to the
salty atmosphere while the case corroded away.

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