Hi all. I joined some time ago but haven’t posted anything until now. I have a few objects and stories that others may find interesting. The first is the board shown in the picture. As I describe it, I will refer to the The Collector’s Guide to Vintage Intel Microchips:
https://www.cpushack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/VintageIntelMicrochipsRev4.pdf (NOTE: large PDF download). This link was posted by @oldben earlier this year - thank you. I will call this book “the Guide” below.
The provenance is that I pulled the board out of a bin of lab trash at the small company where I worked in 1984. I asked a senior manager there if I could have the board and he said yes. (Actually he laughed at me for asking and said I could do whatever the @(#*&$@ I wanted with it.) The small company was called CHI Systems at the time and it, too, has an interesting history, but I’ll save that for another post. The board has been in my possession through the years since.
The board is screened “(C) Intel 1972”. The most recent date code readable on any chip soldered into the board is week 17 of 1972 (7217). The earliest is 7146. So the board was probably manufactured in the late spring or summer of 1972. It contains many extremely rare components. These include:
- Two socketed i1702 EPROMs (not 1702A) in “tiger stripe gold dot” packages. The Guide says 12 of these are known - I think these would be the 13th and 14th. These two are at upper right.
- Two MF1702 EPROMs. These were manufactured by Intel’s appointed second source for the 1702, Microsystems International. See the photo at lower right here: Microsystems International - Wikipedia. These are labeled with a date code of 7222, but since they are socketed they may have been ordered separately. These two parts are at upper left. These are not covered in the Guide because they were not made by Intel but it’s safe to assume they are rare.
- Four (4) i3205 1-of-8 decoders in “lead frame gold dot” packages with secondary number (mask number?) 5338. The Guide says these are “extremely rare”.
- Ten (10) (!!!) i3404 6-bit latches in “lead frame gold dot” packages with secondary number B3143. The Guide says “Extremely rare (3 known)”. It also says the example shown is from 1975; mine are clearly much, much earlier–I wish Intel put evident date codes on their parts, but they don’t.
There are a bunch of 1101As, an 8008, and some other unusual parts, like the SIgnetics 8263 3-way, 4-bit multiplexers at lower left. The board has handmade cuts and jumpers on the back. A couple of discrete components at lower right were damaged by crushing. I’ve never tried to apply power to the board and I will not.