Brick (electronics)
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When used in reference to electronics, "brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a machine with damaged firmware). This usage derives from the machine now being considered "as useful, and as entertaining, as a brick." The term can also be used as a verb. For example, "I bricked my MP3 player when I tried to upgrade it."
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that the device is completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement. If the device can be repaired through software or firmware changes, it's not a brick.
Historically, the oldest reference known is from Fall 1990 at Ramstein AFB, where the term was used by the 1856 Comm Squadron there to describe what happened when you over-drove the flyback mechanism on a CRT, which on a particular model of IBM monitor could be done through firmware. The resultant destruction of the internal electronics resulted in the release of magic smoke and the square monitor being called a "brick" or a "doorstop" or a "boat anchor", depending on which NCO was describing the incident.
Brick may also refer to a Power Brick which is used to describe some external Mains AC to low voltage DC power converters commonly supplied with many consumer electronics devices. It is called a Brick, because generally even with a unit with an appealing design, a OEM power 'brick' (transformer) is generally supplied, and has a much less pleasing design - it generally is a black 'brick'.
The term "brick" can also be used to refer to a particularly large mobile phone, referring to the older style of telephone which was the size of a house brick.
