Spare Chips

[Buying chips at hamfests....] Yes, I've had good luck as well (and from a suplus place is Southampton called 'Greenweld' who often have obscure chips at low prices). It's just more of a risk - If I buy %random old computer for a few pounds and it doesn't work, then I have a chance of repairing it, or at least extracting some useful bits from it. That's not the case if I buy a dead chip. I am quite sure that most people who sell at rallies/hamfests are honest. Every one I've dealt with has been. It's just that the chips might have been defective before he got them, and are being sold as untested. It's not easy to test some devices after all... Agreed. I try to rescue all I can - it's amazing what does turn up. And those are the sorts of devices I will buy at rallies - there's often no other way to get them - and they are easy to test, and pretty difficult to damage (e.g. by ESD). I don't tend to buy common EPROMs and micros, which is how this thread got started. Don't forget obscure linear devices as well. Does anyone know if the LM379S got used in any cheap 'HiFi' amplifiers, and if so, which ones? It's a dual 6W audio amplifier, which is used as a deflection amplifier in the Vectrex video game, and as a servo amplifier in the Micropolis 1200 disk drives, used in PERQ2T1's and Tekky development systems (and elsewhere). They're next to unobtainable now, so a source would be welcome. How insane? Are these price so high that I couldn't even consider buying one, or would it be worth getting the odd device to restore a particularly rare computer, or what? -- -tony ard12(a)eng.cam.ac.uk The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill