Microscopic Computer Collection?

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Fri May 15 15:32:46 1998

At 01:04 PM 5/15/98 -0700, Sam Ismail wrote:
>Some of the sites I found in the web have photos of the 4004 die. I don't
>have the specific pages off-hand but if you go to AltaVista
>(www.altavista.digital.com) and do a search on "Intel 4004" you'll run
>into it within the first 5 or so hits.

Yes, there's an image of the 4004 die on Coulson's site. But if
collecting classic computers was only about finding GIFs on the
web, we'd all have pretty big collections, wouldn't we? :-)

Sad to say, but I'd like to get two 4004s - one to smash, one to
keep as-is. I get the impression they're considerably less rare
than many of the computers we collect, having been used in more
popular computerized devices.

For that matter, I'd like to get more rejected silicon dies.
I have one three-inch wafer containing an HP CPU from the early
80s, and I lusted at the eight-inch wafers I saw at a friend's
office. Anyone know anyone at a foundry? Or do they religiously
recycle the silicon after it's been contaminated with circuitry?

- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
Received on Fri May 15 1998 - 15:32:46 BST

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