A friend of mine just recently contacted me to inquire if i wanted to buy a chip for my car for $150 Canadian (about $100US). I asked him what manufacturer it was and he told me it was a copy of a TAP chip. He said that he could get a copy of any manufacturer's chip at about a quarter of the price and it would work just as well. I'm not ready to chip anyways (only 2000 kms) and when I do, i'll likely go with a legit copy...but this is the first i've heard of this.<p>Any one else know of this practice and the reliability of these pirate chips?

nt<br>

Do you *really* want to risk damaging your $28K car by buying a rip-off chip from an unknown origin? For all you know it may just be a hack from somewhere. It may not be much of an issue on a 30V but if the program is wrong on a 1.8t you could easily destroy your engine (burn valves, melt pistons, etc).<p>Why would support illegal chips? There are plenty avaiable in a huge price range. If you aren't willing to part with, what it it now... $150-180 for neuspeed, to support the companies that do all the work why would you give some BOZO almost *PURE* profit for a rip-off chip that has no follow up support from a vendor?<p>One word: STUIPD!!!!

Its not incredibly difficult to pirate a chip. All you need is a chip reader and chip burner really. You can buy writeable chips from just about all the manufacturers and program them yourself so if you can get the code off your Audi chip store it on the chip reader and then burn it into a new one it will be an exact copy (provided your chip burner isnt messed up). I used to do this back in HS for an engineering company (only it was their chips).<p>Yes it is illegal, but if they dont alter the code and use the same manufacturers chips, you're not going to run into difficulty.<p>If you recall all those people getting busted at trade shows (computer) for fake Intel chips, that is the method they employ.<p>Personally though, I would stick with the real manufacturer purely for the Quality Assurance that they do on their product. Your fake guy is not going to worry about it too much.<br>

<i>If you recall all those people getting busted at trade shows (computer) for fake Intel chips, that is the method they employ.</i><p>Uh, no its not. The chips (actually chip) in an Audi is a ROM (read-only memory) sort of like a floppy disk on a chip, it is just data storage device. The fake intel chips are processors, they don't contain data, but they can process data. It is possible to copy a ROM chip just like you can copy a floppy disk, you read the data out and write the data to a new chip. It is not possible to copy a processor because there is no data to read out.<br>

I feel that some poor schmo has gone to all the work of developing something reliable and assuming liability deserves to make a profit on their legitimate labors.<p>This is where the innovation and creativity happens. We all ultimately benefit from their trial and error. Then some thief comes along at the end and undercuts their hard-earned work. No thanks!

<br>Well then they pirate the microprocessor cirucuitry and make their own...<p>But you are right about the ROM vs Processor. My Bad!

give the guy a break... he actually<br>said he was going with a legit chip.<p>posts like this reduce your credibility<br>by showing such *attitude* and calling people<br>STUPID and BOZOs. i read this, and say<br>'whatever dude'.<p>i read stuff like this all the time on<br>this forum. what's the point of being<br>so bloody abrasive?<p>personally i am interested in copying my stock<br>chip before having it reprogrammed.<p>the same technology used to pirate chips could<br>be used to help us save time and $$ diagnosing<br>all these problems people report.<p>Jay<p><p>

Considering the cost of a chip plant is in the billions. The only one who can afford them are the AMD/Cyrix/IBM of the world. I don't think they will bother.There are vendors who sell lower speed (and cheaper) chips as higher speed ones (i.e. sell you a 350 Mhz and call it a 400 Mhz and pocket the $100 difference)

when u buy a legit chip, u are paying for the research that the company did to come up with the fuel curves, etc. These guys need dynos, test vehicles, etc ($$$). The actual EEPROM/ROM/PROM/FLASH (i don't know which is in the a4)cost is about $5. <br>a chip clone is (EXACTLY) the same as buying ripoff windows s/w. (i.e. downloading pirate s/w off net, etc)<br>I am not going to preach to you any further on this.<p><br>1996 A4 2.8 qms

just raising an issue, that's all...<p>i believe i did mention that i would likely go with a legit chip in my post.<p>

Now let me make this clear, I do not promote the use of pirate chips.<p>Having said that, I just wonder how many of these "holier-than-thou" people out there have never used pirated software...just curious.<p>I understand that pirate chips hit a bit closer to home because a lot of you have had one-on-one contact with manufacturers...but when you think about it, it is a pretty similar situation.<p>Once again, i don't promote the use of pirate chips, just raising an issue.

I guess Im all wrong.<p>I also remember something about re-clocking the slower chip to faster speeds essentially burning it out pretty damned quick.<p>Im just trying to remember when they busted those guys at the computer show in NJ what they were selling....<p>

Reminds me of a joke I was taught in first grade. Try saying "My daddy was born on a pirate ship," while holding your tongue.