As a teen, I remember scavenging 7400-ish chips and whacking
them along the edge to split the ceramic to expose the silicon die,
then examining them under a microscope. With that experience in
mind, I've saved a number of chips from junked equipment over the years.
Has anyone else out there assembled a microscopic chip collection?
I've thought about removing the dies from the chips (hmm, might
be tough because they're so fragile) and mounting them on slides.
Sam's message about the 4004 made me think about this. Coulson
suggested a good way to get a 4004 would be to find one in an old
cash register. I checked the net for sites for cash register
repair companies, and sent a few e-mails, but none had spare 4004s.
It would be fun and almost educational to outsiders to have a
series of slides showing the evolution of the common Intel chipset,
or memory chips.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <
http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
Received on Fri May 15 1998 - 14:33:10 BST