16 Nov
2002
16 Nov
'02
5:20 a.m.
A few things for the record...
And if you think anti-static foam is any better, just
you
wait 3-5 years, and you'll see the stuff will have damaged the leads of
the chips, due to chemicals released during the aging and decomposition of
that foam.
This depends *entirely* on the quality of the foam. I have had some foam
that deteriorated in a couple of years, and some that I still use after
almost 20 years, with no significant effect on chips in storage. Also,
foam is easily replaced.
The only safe ways to
store chips long term is either in anti-static tubes (so much for those
"display cases"), or in pc boards safely tucked away inside a system.
Keeping a chip in a working system will degrade its life (thermal and
electrical stress, sometimes extreme in a crummy design).
Ah, but what of the computer designs that make use of
or work around those
very "flaws" in the earlier chips? Those systems will not function the
same with an "improved" chip in place of the original **RARE** part.
This is indeed a very good point. Some of us are very interested in
having all of the chips original, and replacements "proper" to
manuafacturer and datecodes, as it tells a story about the manufacturing.
I seriously doubt most "chip collections"
will be around in 20-30 years,
since most of the collectors seem to be of the younger generations, who
will outgrow their hobby as they move on to college and such.
They said this about the tube collectors, and those collecting pocket
transistor radios. They were wrong, in a pretty big way.
Most chips don't have that much gold content, so
your logic here is
flawed. I think if you did some research, you'd find that many, many more
chips were tossed into landfills than were crushed for their precious
metal content.
I think that most people on this list really have no idea about the
precious metals content of chips. It is surpisingly high. Take a look
at:
http://www.mrsscrap.com/scrapvalue.html
Keep in mind that these approximate values are for today's scrap, not
stuff from 20 years ago. Back then, things were actually much better
(that is, thicker gold plate). Those gold 8080s were certainly worth
plucking out of sockets. Even the plastic DIPs, like lowly 7400 series
stuff, was worth removing in quantity. Still is, in fact.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org