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Wat is the oldest chip in your parts bin?

dougw

I came across some old and famous chips in one of my parts cabinets. Does anybody else keep old chips? and why?

Note that these were pretty expensive when they were purchased, especially the gold plated ceramic chips.

I expect most of these are part numbers that everyone has heard of.

Have you designed with any of these famous chips?

Brownie points if you can figure out the date codes.

image

image

What chips are buried in your archives?

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  • dougw said:
    Have you designed with any of these famous chips?

    Not sure if this counts but I've been getting pretty intimate with Hitachi's HD6303 in recent years which shares some history with the original 6800 series.

    A now retired colleague of mine accidentally bought one as part of a rather unique classic car which uses it as part of its engine control unit. 

    It all started with a photo like this and of course no documentation...

    image

    The manufacture appeared to enjoy obfuscating IC numbers on the early units either by erasing or covering with hot glue...  

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Nice.  Sounds like the beginnings of a journey.  I have to admire the patience of tackling anything where the documentation is lacking.

  • in reply to dang74

    What made it more difficult was that there was no second chance here and time was not on our side. There was engine mapping and configuration data stored inside a 'black box' that had to be extracted before it became corrupted due to the length of time. The system was last programmed around 35 years ago. The car was a bespoke demonstrator and unique in many ways so not as if you can just copy it from another vehicle if it doesn't end well.

    Needless to say, the original diagnostics equipment used to connect to, configure, and update the mappings was missing, along with its software.

    All there was to go on were two unmarked Fischer automotive connectors on the box, one 5-pin, one 3-pin and that somehow that was the way into the system. Initial probing with a scope revealed no clock or data signal, as it turned out that the diagnostics side initiated the (undocumented) comms.

    Also I had no physical access to the device at the start as this 'project' was initiated during the first COVID lockdown period.

  • in reply to anniel747

    Now that sounds very interesting.

    If there is an equivalent SLEIGH model already for the MC6800, then it may be fairly straightforward to add the additional features and to tweak the quirks.

    Down another 'rabbit hole' we go...

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