Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Ken's posts Post Back to profile
Ken Shirriff

Here's a silicon wafer for Intel's iAPX 432 processor (1981), a failed "micro-mainframe". Each rectangle on the wafer is one processor chip. But what are those five unusual rectangles? Those are test circuits... ๐Ÿงต
12 May 2023 at 19:35 | Open on oldbytes.space
7 comments
Ken Shirriff

Creating chips on a silicon wafer is complicated and lots can go wrong. A few test circuits were placed on the die so Intel could check the important characteristics and make sure everything was okay. The white squares are test pads. Tiny probes contact the pads for measurements.
12 May 2023 at 19:35 | Open on oldbytes.space
Archie

@kenshirriff How tiny is the tiny probe! ๐Ÿ˜ฒ

12 May 2023 at 19:38 | Open on mastodonapp.uk
Ken Shirriff

@Archie8 The probes need to be pretty small to probe the die. A typical probe tip diameter is 1.5 mils (.04 mm).
This TubeTime thread has a bunch of photos: twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/

12 May 2023 at 19:50 | Open on oldbytes.space
Dana Myers

@kenshirriff I asked Google Bard to write a poem about the i432 ๐Ÿ™‚

The Intel i432

A chip ahead of its time,
An architecture too complex,
Too expensive to produce.

A dream that never came true,
A vision of the future,
That was lost to time.

A relic of the past,
A forgotten footnote,
In the history of computing.

But still, it is remembered,
By those who know its story,
And who appreciate its potential.

The Intel i432,
A forgotten masterpiece,
That could have changed the world.

@kenshirriff I asked Google Bard to write a poem about the i432 ๐Ÿ™‚

The Intel i432

A chip ahead of its time,
An architecture too complex,
Too expensive to produce.

A dream that never came true,
A vision of the future,
That was lost to time.

A relic of the past,
A forgotten footnote,
In the history of computing.

12 May 2023 at 21:41 | Open on mastodon.social
Ken Shirriff

@danak6jq I like the poem :-) Did you need to prompt with details about the chip, or did Bard figure everything out?

13 May 2023 at 6:20 | Open on oldbytes.space
Dana Myers

@kenshirriff I asked "please write a poem about the Intel i432" - pretty good results

13 May 2023 at 6:29 | Open on mastodon.social
Go Up