In the next part of the chip story, I continued with some history. I always found chips in “bug” shape, i.e., DIP package (dual in-line package) really cute. I am not going to discuss what is DIP. If you are curious, then you can check them out in Wikipedia.
Here is the actual post embedded as an Instagram post. Further down I copied the post text in case it does not load properly externally.
🌟Chip photography 🌟
🔶 A detour into history 🔶
In the previous post I mentioned the modern epoxy-coated chips. In the past chips used to be different. The silicon die was lying between two ceramic plates glued together with pins sticking out, resembing a bug. Alternatively, plastic would be in use instead of ceramics.
These chips are easier to open. Several careful hammer hits directed between the ceramic plates can do the trick. At home we attempted a few times and all succeeded.
After a while, the form factor of chips changed into the slightly more familiar square with a couple of rows of gold-plated pins on the edges. The silicon die was steadily growing in size. The main frame would be ceramic with a metal lid soldered above the die. Using a hammer is not recommended. On several occasions it succeeded but one CPU broke. 😭 This is when we bought a hot-air gun. It does wonders – carefully heating up to reach the melting point of the solder (check out the previous post). Then the lid can be carefully lifted with a knife. Not a single accident has occurred so far. 😊 This is how the beautiful Pentium Pro was opened (the first post of this series and also on today’s story).
In the good old times, they were building them much better 😜 (i.e., it was easy to reach the silicon) …
(originally posted on 27.9.2020 on my Instagram profile)
