IC Reverse Engineering

...well, not really, just out of plain curiosity! ;)

A while ago an enthusiastic reader reported on a bold method of taking a peek inside programmed ICs to actually read ROM contents by means of pattern recognition software, provided the architecture and the programming language were known (here [1]). Later, we discovered that this technique had a long story behind it we weren't aware of!

I found some more information in one of my favorite sites [2].

Another interesting approach here [3].

UPDATE (March 4th, 2013):
8085's register file [4], by Ken Shirriff.
Awesome investigation!