Much like the cell phone
chip featured in July 2006 - "The Magical Mystery
Pig" - little is known about this chip other than it was extracted
from one of Nokia's top-line N80 cellular phones, bears a Nokia part number (4396275),
and has STMicroelectronics die markings. And, despite our normal detective
work, the chip's function itself remains as mysterious as the origins of
the "Super Rat" adorning its upper metal layer.
With no hard facts to go on, one could speculate that the folks at Nokia might have taken a cue from Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Kalifornia's Kustom Kar King and father of the infamous "Rat Fink" cartoon character when they tucked this outspoken little rodent onto a corner of this chip. The little guy's features echo the bulging muscles, leering grin and seedy appearance of the Rat Fink character that adorned countless hot rod fenders in the 1960s and 1970s. And much like Rat Fink's penchant for hot-rod-related exclamations like "Slam It! Hammer It! Cruise It!" and "Live to Drag!" -- the sign our silicon character is carrying says "Syökää kanaa!" which translates roughly from Finnish to "Pounce Channel!"
As always, we'd welcome any other information you might want to share with us about this interesting little device. Your e-mails are invited on this or any other topic here!