iFixit

If only all safety violations were this easy to fix!

Chipworks is based in Ottawa, Ontario. It gets so cold there that your tires can actually crack if you're not careful.

The equipment at Chipworks is quite different than you'll find in most semiconductor facilities. Every single machine they have exists with one purpose in mind: discovering what's inside the latest chips.

Microscope analysis, both of the optical and SEM kind. Either one is definitely not your typical community college biology lab unit.

Precision matters in this business, and Chipworks is known to be very precise.

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) in action. These are just some of the tricks up Chipworks' sleeve. The SEM is able to see hundreds of times more detail than an optical microscope.

Grinding down a package. Keeping the part level as you grind is critically important.

This process is incredibly painstaking. There's actually a fine art in grinding to exactly the right spot for the photo while keeping the surface perfectly level.

We (at iFixit) are terrible at this. That's why we shipped our iPad to Chipworks.

The next step is to remove the outer packaging.

Tea time? Nope, just time for a nice acid bath.

Dipping the processor in acid dissolves the ceramic packaging containing the silicon. Using the appropriate concentration of acid for the type of ceramic packaging is critical.

Every once in a while, looking at a die yields nifty surprise hidden by the manufacturers. Alas, Milhouse was not found in the iPad. But he was recently discovered inside a Silicon Image chip!

Alright, now you know how we did it. But what does the A4 look like inside?

Photos of the top and bottom of the A4 package.

• Those tiny dots you see on the underside are solder balls that adhere the processor to the logic board. They transmit all power, grounding, and information to-and-from the processor and board.