So Why That Chip, Mr GCHQ?

A bit of speculation

Main article deleted. @thegrugq suggests that it is a standard protocol of “destroy anything with Flash/state”. This would clearly explain the keyboard controller, the USB controller, and the battery controller, although the DC/DC chip is still a mystery, but could easily have been targeted by mistake or just in the “hey, it could have state” paranoia.

Thus overall I consider the piece too speculative and probably wrong, and am removing the content (but leaving the placeholder as a record of my overly paranoid nature)