If you thought microprocessors and electronics in general were all work and no play, think again. Hidden away deep inside integrated circuits all over the world lie perhaps the smallest artistic creations ever conceived by humanity. Miniature painting? Bah! The guy who paints angels on the heads of pins has nothing on the clever engineers who realize their creations on a silicon canvas using photolithographic strokes.

Some of my personal favourites:

• Where's Waldo? - You thought Waldo was hard to find in his books? Well break out your industrial microscope and clear your schedule for the next couple years--this Waldo is measured in microns! All 30 of them!
  http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/waldo.html
  
  
• Milhouse Van Houten - "But I'm all Milhouse! Plus, my mom says I'm the handsomest guy in school!" Everyone's favourite loser found on a Silicon Image Sil154CT64 digital transmitter integrated circuit.
  http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/milhouse.html
  
  
• Mr. T - I pity the fool who found this on a Dallas Semiconductor single-chip T1 transceiver!
  http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/mistert.html
  
  
• Moose Boy - Umm...
  http://www.chipworks.com/SiliconGallery/07mooseboy.htm
  
  

Two great online galleries dedicated to silicon art on the web:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/
http://www.chipworks.com/SiliconGallery/07art.htm

At my first company, I saw the following examples of 'silicon art':

• Busby - A small, cartoon canary who British Telecom used in advertisements at one point.
• Steam Train - Spotted on a video delay line IC, (the regular, shift register structure resembled a rail track).
• A pair of breasts - Can't remember what this IC did, but the acronym for its name was "T.I.T.S."

Strangely enough, our company discouraged the inclusion of such 'silicon art'. The technical reason being that such structures caused DRC violations and that the fab. engineers didn't like them because they were yield hazards!