On Jan 11, 5:42*pm, Andrew Swallow wrote:
On 11/01/2011 18:53, Dan wrote:
{snip}
Let them steal a chip design with a built in flaw such that it can be
remotely commanded to cause major system failure. Essentially one could
get the Red Chinese to construct an airplane with a built in bomb.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

The danger with that one is that our own aeroplanes have the save flaw.

Andrew Swallow

This is a good example of modern tech:
http://www.xilinx.com/products/virtex6q/index.htm
You draw a schematic or specification, simulate it, then compile it
into a configuration file that (you hope) turns the generic Xilinx
chip into a circuit that implements your design. It's like a computer
program done in hardware. The configuration file is -seriously-
encrypted and loads at power-up, and is lost when the power shuts
off.

The individual elements of the ones I used were composed of 5-input
gates that could duplicate any logic function or Karnaugh map (they
actually used look-up tables) followed by master-slave D-type flip-
flops. If you know how to design computer logic that's all you need to
do anything.

When the first try didn't work because the Air Force radio it
controlled didn't meet its own specs, I needed only 10 minutes to fix
it.

Seriously, if you have the program manager's confidence that's how
fast and easy it can be to fix problems. Had it been deployed I could
have E-mailed the files out, like a Windows Update or BIOS upgrade to
a computer.
..