Very interesting. I love experimenting in After Effects with tools and what they can be used for outside their initially intended use.

I'm going to play around with this one.

Here's how I'd make a 3d chip in AE:

Photograph the face of the chip and the side of the chip. Place layers of each of the colours on the chip above the photo and turn of the layer properties.

Use the mask tool to create the shapes that are seen on the chip on the single colour layers, then turn them on to see the new chip.

Pre-comp everything and turn of the photo in the pre-comp.

Create a new comp with dimensions suitable for the circumference of the chip and recreate the graphics in a similar way. Put this comp in the same comp that contains on a single layer, the previous pre-comp.

Working in that comp duplicate the face and make all three layers 3d. Put the cc cylinder effect on the edge and line them up to fit in the shape of a chip...