Siliconinsider @Siliconinsid Twitter profile

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

As an ARM founder, Sophie Wilson created the ARM instruction set which now runs on billions of devices.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Today in a secret place, I got to see a mechanical computer from the Soyuz module. After much brainstorming we managed to realign the longitude indicator which was not reading the correct position compared to the globe. You need to time it right, like ignition in your car engine!

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Ever wondered what happens inside a 20MB Miniscribe hard disk drive when running an access time benchmark?

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

It's getting late, time to close down the park.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Memsic C623550 (2010) It's a MEMS! the C623550 is a micro machined dual axis capacitive accelerometer. The center structure moves with gravity and detect orientation. In this case, it was used in the Nikon D7000 DSLR camera to record your shots in portrait or landscape mode.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

This very thick and heavy PCB is a probe board, designed to test individual chips on a silicon wafer. There’s not that many round PCBs, the symmetry is quite amazing.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

The MIPS R10000 microprocessor contains a microscopic love testimony. It might be a small present, but it lives in millions of chips. ....It's also very nerdy!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Today I have installed my very first art exhibit at the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. Large format prints are so immersive!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Spotted at the @homecompmuseum , probably the largest ferrite cores I've seen in a ferrite core memory. A whole 144 bit!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Time to try a very high resolution stitch of the National NS32032 microprocessor...

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

IIT VPU (1990) This chip has the most elaborate chip-art I have ever encountered! Engineers usually place their initials on dies, but why not etch a full portrait instead?

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Atmel ATmega8L (2004) 8-bit AVR microcontroller with 8kB flash, 512 byte EEPROM and 1kB RAM. The ATMega8 was used in the first generation Arduino.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Rockwell RC96DPi Rockwell was a leading manufacturer of integrated modem solution. Most of them were multi chip modules, like this 9600bps modem that integrate a 6501 based CPU, a DSP and an analog front end chip in the same package.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Your car may use CANbus, but does your coffee machine use Neslink?

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

I started this page just shy of one year ago, and I'm humbled that today over 10k followers have decided to watch my nerdy content. Here's to celebrate, a beautiful prototype Toshiba 64-bit MIPS R10000 microprocessor!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

In 1998 the Nintendo Game Boy gained color. It is apt that its CPU is also very colorful!

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

3Dfx Voodoo 1 500-0003-03 (1997) This chip is the Voodoo graphics PixelFX processor from the original Voodoo 1 3Dfx 3D accelerator for PCs. Does this brings back memories?

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

AMD AM8088 (1982) Identical to Intel’s i8088, AMD started making x86 processor after IBM requirement of having second source manufacturers for their 5150 PC. Checkout the 2 gigapixels (!) photo taken with my new microscope and stitched by @johndmcmaster

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Microchip PIC12C508A-JW (1999) 8-pin 8bit microcontroller with 512 words program memory and 25 bytes of RAM #Microchip

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Dallas Semiconductor DS1633 (1995) High speed battery recharger for lithium, NiCd, NiMH and lead acid chemistries.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Microchip PIC16F84A (1998) The PIC16C84 was a big revolution, as the first microcontroller with electrically erasable serial in-circuit programming. The PIC16F84A is the last revision with 1K flash, 68 bytes RAM, 64 bytes EEPROM, and improved speed up to 20MHz.

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

ST Microelectronics STM32F103ZCT6 (2008) STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 based 32bit microcontroller #STM32 #silicon

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Intel i80286 (1982) The Intel 286 microprocessor was the second implementation of the x86 architecture. With a 16-bit data bus, it powered the IBM PC AT and many clones and was able to run Windows 3.1 (albeit not recommended)

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Panasonic MN2DS0003 (2004) Single-chip controller for DVD players integrating analog front end, optical disk controller, AV decoder supporting MPEG1/MPEG2/JPEG video and DVD Audio/Windows Media Audio (WMA)/MP3 audio decoding, and custom 32-bit CPU with instruction cache.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

I am now making ROM SIMMs for the Macintosh!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

General Motors Custom Microprocessor (1976). Based on the Motorola 6801 8-bit CPU, the GMCM was used in the engine control unit (ECU) to manage ignition and meet new government regulations for emissions. It represented one of the first entry of computers in cars.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Wafer of the Sony PlayStation 1 CPU. While decaping a Sony CXD8606Q, I was very lucky to be able to match the die to an unidentified wafer I had in my collection. The 6“ wafer could accommodate a total of 200 individual dies.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Intel 8080 (1974) Second 8-bit microprocessor from Intel, the 8080 was widely successful and started the microcomputer revolution with the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 running CP/M. 6µm NMOS, 6000 transistors. Browse a 2 gigapixel version of the die here!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

MOS Technology 6510 (1984). At the heart of the Commodore 64 computer, the 6510 is a modified version of the 6502 8-bit microprocessor with 6 GPIO pins, tristate address bus and clean halt mode.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Automated stepper for die photography, a thread: As some of you were curious learning more about my automated microscopy setup, here is a summary of my solution and what I have learned from building it. I will also link to other microscopists working on automated setup (1/15)

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Dallas Semiconductors DS3803 (1996) As a leader in battery-backed SRAM solution, Dallas Semiconductors made this cursed 1Mb NVSRAM (Non-Volatile SRAM) 72-pin SIMM module.

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@Siliconinsid

10 months

Data Device Corp. MIL-STD-1553 transceiver. MIL-STD-1553 is a communication layer and protocol used to interconnect modules in military, aeronautical and space application. This module integrate the media access controller (right) and the physical layer (left) to drive the coax.

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Honey, I shrunk the PIC! A visual illustration of thee generations of the Microchip PIC16C54 microcontroller and process change from 1.2µm to 0.9µm and 0.7µm.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Don't forget to clean your cache!

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

Celebrating diversity with a new set of VRAM SIMMs sporting Apple's rainbow colors, for the Macintosh Quadra 700!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

And a 80MB Quantum ProDrive ELS doing the access time benchmark, with a more traditional voice coil actuator

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Intersil NE555 (1974) An uncommon manufacturer for the classic 555 timer IC

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

SunPlus SPMC01B (2000) What’s inside a Microsoft mouse? A small SunPlus microcontroller. What’s inside the SunPlus microcontroller? 2.5 kB of ROM, 64 Bytes of RAM, and a 6502 processor! Navigate through a 210Mpix image of the die on @johndmcmaster

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Atmel ATmega128A (2001) The ATmega128A is a member of the low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced RISC architecture. With 128KB program flash memory, 4KB SRAM and 4KB EEPROM, and performance up to 16MIPS @ 16MHz.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Nintendo CGB-CPU B (1998) She comes in color everywhere in 1998, powered by a Sharp LR35902 CPU. The GameBoy Color uses the Sharp SM83 core, a derivative of the 8-bit Z80 CPU, visible on the die on the middle-bottom part.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

The early MOS 6502 that was destroyed by a scrapper gave me the opportunity to get my best looking photograph of the 6502 CPU. So nothing did go to waste! Browse a 1.8 gigapixel photo of the die that I took yesterday, and stitched by @johndmcmaster here:

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Signetics NE5516 (1983) If you need a bunch of 555 timers for your project, the NE5516 has you covered with 16 individual 555 in a single package. Unfortunately the chip is no longer in production and is getting quite hard to find.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

First power on with @curious_marc , we have some life! It seems that most of my Apple 1 board is working: CPU is executing code, but keyboard input does trigger a data bus conflict between the PIA & CPU, so there's still work to be done...

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Tip: don't use a chip suffering from shortage in your project. Something suitable is likely stocked at your local electronic store. If you're lucky they may even have it on sale to get rid of common stuff.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Silicon Graphics « In pixels we trust » (1983). #silicongraphics released the GE25 Geometry Engine in 1983, a co-processor designed to compute 3D graphics. This unmarked chip could be a test chip implementing a small portion of the GE25. The SGI hypercube logo is 4 mm high!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

'Tis the season for some silicon! The Dallas Semiconductor DS1485 is a parallel interface real time clock with 8k x 8 NVRAM, and a tiny decorated tree! If you're using one of those for your countdown to 2022, you should think about upgrading to the Y2K compliant DS1685.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

I have been busy designing a variety of vintage memory modules, including VRAM SIMMs for all the beige Macintoshes. Will they work? fingers crossed! #Macintosh #RetroComputing

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

SGI Geometry Engine GE25A (1983). The geometry engine is a specialized co-processor designed to compute essential math operations involved in 3D graphics, such as vector, matrix transformations, clipping and mapping.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Atmel ATmega8 (2013) 8-bit AVR microcontroller with 8kB flash, 512 byte EEPROM and 1kB RAM. The ATmega8 was at the heart of the first generation Arduino board. #Arduino #AVR #Atmel

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

International Rectifier IR2235 (1995) Three phase high voltage and high speed MOSFET and IGBT bridge driver.

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

Nintendo F413A SNES CIC chip (1993) Sharp SM590 core 4bit microcontroller for copy protection in SNES game cartridge. #Nintendo #SNES

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

ST L7805CV (1995) Fixed 5V 1.5A linear voltage regulator.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

National Semiconductor INS4004 (1975) The Intel i4004 microprocessor had only one known second source manufacturer, and it is not an exact clone as National Semiconductor redesigned the masks. Manufactured on a 10μm PMOS process, it can execute 92000 instructions @ 740kHz.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Sony CXD8606Q - LSI Logic L9B0057 (1995) The microprocessor of the original Sony PlayStation. Based on a 32-bit MIPS R3000 RISC core and a 3D graphics transformation coprocessor. Later revisions are implemented in a standard cell array so no obvious structure is standing out.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

9 months

Texas Instruments TL082E (1995). Wide bandwidth dual JFET input operational amplifier.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

I would not consider 74 logic ground for amazing discoveries, but the TI SN74AS760 proved me wrong! How cool is this 380µm long rendition in silicon of the space shuttle?

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

9 months

HP 1FT9-0004 (1995). HP placed a hidden message in the PA-RISC 7150 microprocessor for future generations to see.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Microchip PIC16LF1847 (2010) 8-bit enhanced mid-range microcontroller. @MicrochipMakes

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

9 months

National Semiconductors LMC6034 (1994). High bandwidth, high input resistance, quadruple operational amplifier, manufactured in National's advanced double polysilicon gate CMOS process.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Fairchild made an adjustable version of the classic 78xx and 79xx linear voltage regulator. The DIP8 package stay cool by flapping its wings.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Under the tree was @TubeTimeUS and @EMSL 's Open Circuit. No hair splitting in this book, each page is a visual delight. What are you doing? go get yours!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

National Semiconductor LM200 (1976) Linear voltage regulator with 2-30V adjustable output.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Memsic C623550 (2010) Yesterday's post was with darkfield illumination, today we join the light side of the force with brightfield illumination of the C623550 MEMS dual axis capacitive accelerometer.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

Motorola MC68881 Mask B81G (1987) The 68881 is Motorola's first version of the IEEE 754 floating point unit for the 68020 and 68030 microprocessors. With 155 000 transistors, it was notably used in the Apple Macintosh II and 68k based UNIX workstations.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Sometime you got to pick up projects that you started a long time ago... I replicated the Apple 1 PCB in adobe Illustrator over 15 years ago, and recently had it manufactured. Now onto finding all the remaining 1970's vintage components. Can't wait to hear the boot chime!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

One of my favorite CPU in my collection, a military sample of the 68040 processor, and a die shot of the 0.65µm mask 00E31F. The 4th generation of the 68k family has powered many great machines and placed some serious computing power on your desk. #Motorola #MC68040

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

IMP 62C538 (1996) This chip is the magnetic head amplifier of the Iomega ZIP 100MB floppy drive.

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

Yamaha YM2612 (1988) OPN2 FM synthesis sound chip, as used in the Sega Genesis. #SEGA #Yamaha

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Experimenting with Rheinberg illumination: Using coloured light at different angles to reveal the orientation of structures on silicon chips. I think I need to explore this further with a better LED rig, what do you think of the results?

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Texas Instruments TL16CFM600 (1995) Gate array from US Robotics dialup modem

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

We programmed my BPROMs with @curious_marc and tested them in @TubeTimeUS 's Apple 1. This was the last step needed to complete my boards, hopefully they will work!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Revenge of the CISC! I have made a series of new dioramas: • Intel i80386DX • Motorola MC68000 • MOS 6502 • VLSI ARM710 (yes, it's a RISC...) And the former ones: • Intel i960SA • MIPS IDT79R3500 • PowerPC 603e Send me a DM to get one!

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Computer running too slow? get that 16MHz to 25MHz speed bump with the original Motorola 68030 upgrade sticker!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Oh, those sweet 70's lab equipment vibes!

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

ST Thomson TL064 (1991) Quad low noise operational amplifier with JFET input

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Making a chip is a very complex process, shining light through multiple masks to etch patterns on a silicon wafer, each step repeated with perfect alignment... This wafer certainly missed that mark!

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Atmel/Microchip ATtiny861 (2013) High performance low power 8-bit AVR microcontroller @MicrochipMakes #Arduino

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

HP 5086-7023 (1982) This is the inside of a microwave YIG oscillator. A black sphere of yttrium iron garnet is exposed to a magnetic field which intensity allows to tune the output frequency from 2.7 to 4.2 GHz. The smaller "tickler" coil is for fine tuning or modulation.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

This original MOS 6502 processor is worth ~$3000 on the collector market... ...Or it could have been, until a scraper decided to cut the PCB around it, shattering the ceramic in the process. I got it for a fraction of the price, the photo in my 6502 diorama is of this chip.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Macintosh Quadra 700 all filled up with happy purple memory modules :-)

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

Motorola SCX63924 (1991) Video ASIC of the NeXTstation computer. Many thanks to Brian Archer for the donating this chip #NeXT

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

NE555, NE556, LM324, TL082, TL084, uA741, uA747, LM358: all such staples of electronic engineering. How many different ways have vendors implemented these designs across revisions? Well let's find out! Shoutout to my local component shop for stocking this nice variety of fossils.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Silicon Image SII141 (2001) The SII141 is a PanelLink Digital video receiver designed to drive LCD panels with a pixel clock of 25-86 MHz (VGA to high refresh XGA). I have also discovered a tiny portrait on the die, maybe someone will recognise this person?

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Microchip PIC16C765 (1999) The 16C765 is a high performance 8-bit RISC microcontroller with USB 1.1 interface, one of the earliest on the market at the dawn of USB @MicrochipMakes

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

1 year

National Semiconductors NE555 (2001) Another version of the classic 555 timer, to compare with the one I posted a couple days ago. This one came in a fancy ceramic package and is likely milspec.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Winbond W541C200 (2009) The W541C200 is a 4 bit microcontroller with 4K ROM and 128 nibbles of RAM. Enough to power many electronic gadgets sold by the million!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

The Digital Equipment Corporation J-11 is a real eye candy! This module is a late implementation of the PDP-11 architecture where the CPU is composed of a data path and control/microcode chip mounted on a white ceramic substrate.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Toshiba 4L01F1204 (1989) Gate array

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Rockwell RP56D/SP R6764 (1999) The Rockwell RP56D/SP is an integrated 56k modem solution that contains a 6501 based CPU and a DSP. It is packaged in a multi-chip package that also contains the analog front-end. Bonus point if you can spot the 6501 core!

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Microsemi ULN2003 (2000) Another staple of electronic design, the ULN2003 is a 50V - 500mA power driver consisting of seven Darlington transistors. Some crazy bond wires and even an unexpected silicon doodle!

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

NEC uPD30500 MIPS VR5000 (1996) Celebrating 5000 followers! The MIPS R5000 is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor with 32kB instruction and data cache designed by QED and manufactured by NEC, IDT and NKK in a 0.35um CMOS process. It has 3.6 million transistors and a 84 mm2 die size.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

2 years

Intel 2716 (1977) 2048 x 8 bit EPROM

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Fujitsu MB86907E TurboSPARC (1996) The TurboSPARC microprocessor is a low end implementation of the SPARC V8 ISA with 16kB data and instruction cache, a L2 and DRAM cache controller, and SBus interface, and was manufactured on a four metal layer 0.35µm CMOS process.

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@Siliconinsid

10 months

MIPS R6000 (1991) The R6000 microprocessor inaugurated the MIPS II instruction set and was implemented in ECL, reaching up to 80MHz. Unlike its predecessor, the R3000, it saw little adoption. It was manufactured by BIT on a 0.5µm bipolar process for a total of 89000 transistors.

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@Siliconinsid

2 years

Nortel Networks QVM1149 (1999) A very small and cool looking ASIC manufactured by American Microsystems Inc for Nortel, function is not known.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Zilog Z8530 SCC (1980) The Zilog SCC Serial Communication Controller is a dual channel, multiprotocol serial data communication peripheral designed for use with 8- and 16-bit microprocessors. It was used in many early Macintosh computers to handle the serial ports.

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Siliconinsider

@Siliconinsid

3 years

Panasonic LNCT28PF01WW (2010) Dual wavelength 660nm and 780nm laser diode for CD/DVD burner application fabricated in a MOCVD process (metal-organic chemical vapor deposition). The infrared beam looks orange to the camera. #Laser #Laserdiode #Panasonic

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@Siliconinsid

3 years

Matsushita Panasonic AN7805 (1988) 1A 5V linear regulator.

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@Siliconinsid

11 months

Realtek RTL8201 (2002) Single-port 10/100Mbps fast Ethernet physical layer transceiver with MII interface.

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@Siliconinsid

1 year

Hitachi HD68450 (1983) The 68450 is a DMA (direct memory access) controller for Motorola 68000 systems. With 4 DMA channels, it would handle memory to memory/device data transfer with minimal CPU intervention. Hitachi was a second source of the Motorola 68000 and peripherals.

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