On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 11:44 PM, Jim Bell <jamesdbell8@yahoo.com> wrote:
... It has been about 31 years since I worked at Intel; at the time they were developing the first DRAMs with 'redundancy': The ability to swap out 'rows' and 'columns', or potentially blocks, of storage elements. This was done to be able to drastically increase the yield of such chips: Test programs were written to identify errors (single bits; bad rows; bad columns; bad blocks) and swap out with 'invisible' rows/columns/blocks with others. Presumably, modern flash ROM has long used similar abilities. If that is the case, there is some kind of ordinarily-invisible storage areas (blocks, most likely) in those flash-drives. Such areas were sometimes 'activated' (made to appear/disappear) by out-of-spec voltages (above +5 volts), but it's possible also that reading or 'writing' combinations of pre-specified data would also do this. It's been too long for me to give detailed assistance, but I can well imagine that 'they' are taking advantage of such 'features'.
Intel would be a strange beast for you today Jim. there's a secret underground facility in Oregon (perhaps Cali too) for classified intelligence work. some small fraction of Intel employees even know it exists. (maybe i'll post GPS coords?) there they sequester CPU vulnerability research of sufficient implication. there they sequester hardware level exploitation research of sufficient implication. there they work on TS/SCI compartmented projects for USGOV. these people do not have your best interests at heart! whatever justifications they hoid dear and true are facades for compliance. sooner or later this will come to light, and it is incredibly disheartening to see loyalty twisted toward state power under guise of social good and justice. make no mistake: these efforts are a direct affront to freedom, liberty, and other ideals we hold paramount. NO MORE SECRETS