On 16/11/06, Alan B. Pearce <A.B.Pearce@rl.ac.uk> wrote:
> >> Remember they only get one chip per piece of equipment. And if
> >> somebody calls me saying their control unit is broken and I find
> >> there's a PIC missing that's going to be very expensive to replace.
> >so replace the missing pic with a deliberately fried blank one
> >before reporting it as a fault
>
> Which is why one stamps a part number on the chip - even using an ordinary
> stamp pad, but preferably with something that is not solvent soluble with
> water or alcohol. Makes it rather obvious that the chip has been replaced
> with something else.

Anything you can do, I can do...

You're just throwing up another barrier. The better types of this
solution would involve using some form of non-visible marking. Also,
when the chip is literally burnt up there's no way you can check
whether the label was right or not. You're also going to cut off
honest customers the more checks you add in that must be correct. If
you require them to have a legible top surface and the chip actually
burns through due to some other fault, you'll deny them service even
though they should've gotten it.
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