Questions tagged [chip]
General questions about computer chips and chipsets in retro hardware. Use a specific chip’s tag instead if available.
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When did CMOS processors become the fastest?
The earliest CMOS microprocessors (RCA 1802, HP Stirling RISC, et.al.) were slower than contemporaneous NMOS microprocessors and Bipolar logic computers. (IIRC, both the 1802 and the 6502 could be ...
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How much extra die area did a CMOS CPU take?
Starting in the late seventies, the microchip industry generally switched from NMOS to CMOS, primarily because CMOS circuits use less power, though they also have other advantages like more noise ...
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What cultural problems did TSMC Camas run into in 1995? [closed]
According to a speech made by Morris Chang in Arizona, transcribed at https://interconnect.substack.com/p/globalization-is-dead-and-no-one
When I started TSMC back in 1987, I had a dream. Probably ...
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Where can I find good photos of old chip making equipment?
I recently stumbled upon modern hi-res color photos of ancient soviet chip making equipment from the 80s:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220520030420/https://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/226489.html
...
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Were there any enhancement chips that vastly outperformed the main CPU?
Were there any enhancement chips in officially-released games that were CPUs themselves and which ran the game code itself, relegating the role of the main CPU to that of a thin client?
To elaborate, ...
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How the technology keeps improving [closed]
How does the technology keep improving despite having everything discovered already? I mean the same sized chips and electronics are used from year to year but with every new version of the main board ...
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Problem with hackrom on real GBA cartridge
This is a problem that has brought me headaches, so I will try to explain as best as possible.
I have flashed with a Gbxcart several GBA ROMs in real cartridges (repro), working without any problem, ...
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Can Alice be hacked to use more than 2MB Chip Ram
Is it possible to hack Amiga Alice chip and use more than 2MB CHIP RAM? It's a long shot, but I assume if it was possible someone would have done it already?
The maximum amount of Chip RAM in any ...
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When did half-bad RAM chips stop being available?
The ZX Spectrum sold with either 16 or 48K RAM, necessitating an optional 32K memory bank which was achieved in a characteristically (for Sinclair) cleverly frugal way: with half-bad 64kbit DRAM chips,...
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Are there any 1980's video chips still available besides the TMS9918?
The TMS9918 is still available, which is nice.
But are there any other (better) video chips still on the (after-)market in any numbers? Obviously Commodore's VIC-II is not one of them.
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Did the Nintendo S-SMP really contain 3 million transistors?
According to http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=S-SMP
The S-SMP (perhaps: Sony - Sound & Music Processor?) is the audio CPU used by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It consists of ...
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How much RAM was sold each year in the 1970s?
I'm trying to get an idea of the quantitative parameters of the computer industry in the era that saw the rise of personal computers. Of course, the industry as a whole was old by then; companies like ...
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What process node were 4k and 16k DRAMs first made at?
In the history of computers, much is said of microprocessors, for good reason, but the relatively unsung RAM chips were equally important. Of particular significance were the 4kbit and 16kbit dynamic ...
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Could any computers use 16k or 64k RAM chips?
An interesting feature of the Apple II was that it had three rows of sockets for RAM chips, each of which could take either 4k or 16k chips. That meant the minimum configuration was 4K (cheap) but it ...
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How were 4-digit IC part numbers assigned?
It seems that integrated circuits of the 1970s tended to have 4-digit part numbers. This includes not only the ones that came to be well-known like CPUs (Intel 4004, 8008, 8080, 8085, 8086, 8088, ...
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Did any 8-bit CPUs use dynamic memory for registers?
According to https://jamiestarling.com/project-8088-the-8088-cpu-pinout/
One thing to note – the 8088 registers are made from dynamic memory cells – they have to be refreshed. The minimum clock speed ...
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Who owned the rights to the TIA chip?
The two most important chips in a game console are the CPU and GPU. In the Atari 2600, the CPU was a cut down version of the 6502, a very common low-cost microprocessor. The GPU was the TIA, which was ...
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Good book on the history of fabrication?
Crystal Fire is a great book about the development of the transistor, but much less so for the IC side of things. What is the equivalent for ICs, and especially microprocessor development?
I'm ...
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Why did later CPUs use microcode instead of PLA's?
If you look at a die photo of a 6502, about forty percent of the chip is taken up by what's obviously microcode, both by its regular structure and by the obvious need for such from the instruction set,...
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Are all 64k x 4-bit ICs interchangeable for Amstrad-era ZX Spectrum 128k +2/+3?
There were 4 64k x 4-bit Integrated Circuit chips in the Amstrad-era Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 and +3 models. These are known as the +2A, +2B (both +2 "black"), +3 and +3B (also both black cases).
I ...
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Why did some MOS 6502 packages have holes in them?
Someone was recently selling an early MOS 6502 CPU on Ebay (date code 0277) in a ceramic package that had a couple of holes in it. You can see them clearly (under the tape, which presumably was not ...
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What are typical causes of IC failure in early microcomputers?
When troubleshooting older electronics, the usual culprits tend to be connections and capacitors. The "solid state" components, if they have failed, usually in the role of victim e.g. bad voltage ...
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Did general purpose I/O controller chips come with fewer than 40 pins?
I'm aware that 40-pins was a high-water mark for dual-inline package chips for a significant time; many CPUs of the early 1980s (8086, Z80, 6800, 6502, etc) used 40-pin packages, but no larger.
...
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Why were the Cell SPEs unable to operate without instruction from the PPE? [closed]
The Cell, the CPU of the PlayStation 3, contained one conventional core called the PPE, and up to eight specialized vector cores called SPEs.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(...
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What was the cost of the PS2 chip in the last PS3 to have it?
The PlayStation 2 provided backward compatibility with the PS1 by essentially incorporating an entire PS1 on a separate chip. It kept this arrangement permanently.
The PS3 started off providing ...
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Why were the PlayStation 2 CPU and GPU initially separate chips?
At the heart of the PlayStation 2 were a pair of custom chips, described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2_technical_specifications
CPU: MIPS III R5900-based "Emotion Engine", ...
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How wide were the RAM chips in the PlayStation 1?
In earlier years, it was common for DRAM chips to be one bit wide, so that an 8-bit machine would use eight of them to form one memory bank. Occasionally, 4-bit-wide chips would be used, e.g. the ...
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Why did the PlayStation 2 implement backward compatibility that way?
It is well known that the PlayStation 2 implemented compatibility with the previous console by essentially incorporating a PS1 on a chip.
The fact of backward compatibility is unremarkable as far as ...
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Annotated die photo of 3D graphics chip
I'm interested in how graphics hardware has worked at different tech levels. Having looked at an annotated die photo of the VIC-II for example, I now feel I have a much better understanding of how it ...
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Cost of unrestricted sprites
All the game consoles of the second through fourth generations, and several early home computers, had sprites, which were valuable though costly, e.g. the VIC-II spent 2/3 to 3/4 of its area on ...
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Will any modern EEPROM programmer work with the IP3604/КР556РТ5?
Just to say I'm completely new to the world of PROM and I'm a bit bewildered.
My ultimate aim is to be able to program these Russian 4k bipolar PROM chips, which are the equivalent of Epson IP3604, ...
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Why did the VIC-II and SID use 6 µm technology in the era of 3 µm and 1.5 µm?
In short, 3 µm looks like it was the "standard" process size at the time, and it was available to Commodore before the chips were designed. Therefore it looks like using the larger 5 to 7 µm process ...
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What were the first chips with hardware support for SPI?
The SPI four-wire serial bus is a very common interface between chips and other small devices these days, but was originally developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s. What were the first Motorola and ...
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Anyone have more information on the "Hammerstein TV Games" 1st gen console?
I have what appears to be an early games console (supported games are variations on the theme of "pong", or ball and paddle games) manufactured in South Africa. Does anyone have more information or ...
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Will the circuit work normally if different chip speeds (eg 8088-2 and 8255-1)
Old processors came out with support chips. That is, there was a family - the processor and its chips. Over time, the same kits came out with higher frequencies.
Will the circuit work properly if ...
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SNES PPU die photo
The heart of many classic home computers and game consoles was the graphics chip, yet these tend to be less well-documented than the corresponding CPUs. Still, there are die photos of two of the most ...
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Identifying an old game from the early 2000s
I'm hoping this question belongs here as this is the closest site I could find that matched my situation.
Many years ago, around late 2003 or 2004, I came across this electronic toy that sort of ...
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How many transistors in the Nintendo Super FX chip?
The Super FX coprocessor, released with Star Fox in 1993, provided 3D rendering capabilities that were absent from the SNES itself. Given that 3D gaming was quite widespread by the late eighties, it ...
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Why are RAM chips 1 or 4 bits wide?
I don't know whether it's still the case, but at least in the early days, it was common for RAM chips to be one bit wide, so e.g. an 8-bit computer would install them in groups of eight. I gather at ...
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Did the transmeta processor architecture work by binary translation?
Transmeta Corporation produced the Transmeta Crusoe Processor architecture. (Transmeta was also famous for having Linus Torvalds work there at the time.)
We can see from the wikipedia article that ...
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Why are the internals of NES Gamepaks so small compared to the case?
As you probably know, in the technology world, smaller is generally considered to be better. Companies compete to make the most portable phone, or the smallest laptop, but apparently Nintendo didn't ...
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What's with the empty space on this die?
Here is the Valvo 2650. (Also known by other names, in the UK as Signetics 2650).
What struck me about this image is the amount of empty space! If you look at a modern-day chip, say a Skylake or ...
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List of Intel microchips
Where could I find a list of all of the microchips released by Intel, including microprocessors, Rams, roms, storage devices. Etc.
I have checked Wikipedia, and they have the processors, but not any ...
user11220
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Reason for gold lines on old ICs?
A lot of older (ceramic) ICs have a gold-plated line extending from the die cover to the edge of the package. Did this serve a practical purpose or was it just bling?
I suspect that it might be what'...
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What are the circuits captured on this photo of the NES PPU die?
I found a die photo of the NES video chip: http://visual6502.org/images/RP2C02/NES_RP2C02_G_8F1_1B_20x_1600w.jpg
I think the big block of fairly regular circuitry at the bottom left is the sprites? ...
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Why were chips socketed in early computers?
In many early computers, many of the chips were in sockets rather than soldered directly to boards, e.g. this series of pictures of the Tandy CoCo 1 has a note to the effect that all the chips are ...
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Part-bad chips other than RAM
In the early eighties, you could buy half-bad 64k RAM chips at a discount. Some cost-conscious manufacturers such as Sinclair and Tandy took advantage of this, buying eight such chips to make a 32K ...
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Were 64k RAM chips $5 in 1981?
According to http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/augarten/p64.htm "In 1981, they slashed the cost of 64K RAMs from some $25 each to about $5, and the price hovered at that level throughout the following ...
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When did MOS Technology upgrade to 5µm?
I'm trying to understand exactly why various chips were designed the way they were at different times, in the service of which I have a rather specific question:
When did MOS Technology upgrade to ...
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Who made the Atari 2600 TIA video chip?
At the heart of the Atari 2600 was the TIA video chip, designed by Jay Miner, well known for his later work on the chips for the Atari 400/800 and the Amiga.
Who manufactured the TIA? As an in-house ...
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