There are two kinds of connections to integrated circuits - pins and balls. Pins seem kind of obvious (little metal wires), balls are metal balls that sit between the die and the package making the electrical connection.
There are several kinds of capacitors in integrated circuits. One increasingly popular kind is the metal-oxide-metal capacitor or mom cap or for very short mom.
I've made it through several years of talking about balls and moms with a straight face. But tonight I was eating dinner with several coworkers, including one of my boss's peers who is also the lead on my main project. Near the end of dinner one of my coworkers brought up that we want to move some of the ball connections. That was fine, but then when the project lead expressed concern, my coworker explained that it should be ok since we won't touch anyone else's balls, we'll just move our own balls. That's when I finally lost it. Luckily I didn't actually laugh out loud, but I think people noticed the crazy contortions that my face made. I'm just glad no one mentioned that we'd have to move some of the moms out of the way of our balls.
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