Annibal:

Yes. It is a joke. The term "eat" relates to the consumption of food.

In your post you referred to the microcontroller that would "eat" current. Now I fully understood what you meant!! Yet I took it as funny too. I thought...if one microcontroller eats more than another then surely it must grow bigger!!

Strictly speaking the microcontroller will not eat current. At any given time all of the current that is sourced into those pins taking current into the part will be exactly equal to all of the current that is being sunk out of all the other pins. The part may get warm due to heat dissapated by the passage of such current but there will be no retaining of current inside the part.

I guess you need to think of the microcontroller as having a full 100% stomach bypass. It will not grow bigger.

Michael Karas