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Every processor die anyone has photographed and given away(sheets.works)

97 points by user_7832 12 hours ago | 18 comments

I would pay for this as a high quality book. Ideally some info and detail about each processor. Anyone else?

I've got a copy of "High Tech: Window to the Future" by Gene Bylinsky. It's got an actual Am8052 die embedded in the front cover. Published in 1986, so it is ancient, but it covers they heyday of microprocessor development, when transistors were big enough to see. It's not a "deep" boo, but it does have plenty of pretty pictures.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL6322148W/High_Tech?edition=k...

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/334312859146

[–] Integer 5 hours ago

https://arenamag.com/silicon

[–] manytimesaway 12 hours ago

That maker list is unusable. It's not sorted in any way, contains duplicates (MOS Technology & Commodore CSG are the same), and would gain from reorganizing some brands (gathering Nintendo CPUs together, for instance).

[–] lindnertim 1 hour ago

I know of some that are freely available but are missing. Has anyone figured out how to get word to them?

[–] josh-wrale 10 hours ago

Have people tried training models to decode these photographs into code?

[–] amelius 9 hours ago

How would you do that if there's like 60 layers of metal conductors over the silicon substrate?

[–] josh-wrale 9 hours ago

Fair. I guess it would be necessary to CT scan them, like the Vesuvius Challenge

[–] dgfl 8 hours ago

Not sure if regular tomography would work, but this has been done at high enough resolution with some fancier techniques (ptychography): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07615-6

I would imagine this is of decent interest to people reverse engineering chip designs, or doing failure analysis, so it’s possible someone might actually be trying this at scale.

[–] Arubis 6 hours ago

You can destructively deprocess dies, removing a layer at a time and imaging at each layer. 20ish years ago you could still do this with a polishing wheel and a fine slurry; don’t know if that’s still viable.

[–] throwaway198846 9 hours ago

Computer, enhance!

[–] kkotak 9 hours ago

We need two people on the keyboard at the same time to enahnce.

[–] elictronic 9 hours ago

It’s like taking a picture of someone’s house to determine their current medical diagnosis.

Garbage in, it’ Herpes.

[–] giancarlostoro 9 hours ago

Could have just said to determine where all the pipes are but you know, you could go all the way to herpes I suppose… :)

[–] YoshiRulz 6 hours ago

https://github.com/giulioz/mmo-chip described in talk https://youtu.be/5211iYEqnzo?t=44m30s

[–] omoikane 5 hours ago

See also Ken Shirriff's blog, which has die photos plus detailed explanation of how things work.

https://www.righto.com/

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=righto.com

[–] karim79 10 hours ago

Amazing site. I've a friend who is an aspiring oil painter and I just sent him this link. I can't wait to see the results!

[–] superjan 9 hours ago

Here is one more (intel 4004)

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s674...