Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

19 Nov 2001

Indeed, it may have been a mech sample.

I have DEC DCT-310s with ES written on them, they were actual
engineering samples for the VT240 team (near same time as Falcon
card develpoment).  Mine came from when the Engineering junkbox.

Allison

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Erlacher &lt;edick(a)idcomm.com&gt;
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org &lt;classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org&gt;
Date: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY

...
 I've got one pretty old MOTOROLA device, in a
40-pin DIP, the identity of which
...
 is a complete mystery to me.  In fact, I may have
tossed it not long ago, but
...
 all it said on it aside from a MOT date code was
"Sample."  Maybe it was a
mechanincal ...

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Allison" &lt;ajp166(a)bellatlantic.net&gt;
To: &lt;classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org&gt;
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 6:38 AM
Subject: Re: Intel C8080A chip brings $565 on EBAY

> From: John Galt &lt;gmphillips(a)earthlink.net&gt;
>
> >There's a rather small community of chip collectors.
> >
> >However, there are a few collectors who have been
> >collecting for over 10 years now who have put togather
> >pretty vast collections of literally thousands of chips.
>
>
> My only concern is they may be collecting junk, IE: chips that
> look good, may be rare but are DEAD/useless electronically.
>
> >It would be the same as if suddenly someone found
> >two Intelec bit slice 3002 computers dated 1975 in a closet or something.
...
 > >Sure,  there might could be more, but if they
were common, you guys would
...
 > >have already seen one.
>
>
> These were quite common and the basic chipset on an experimentors board
> was around $495 in 1977.  Most were used then relagated to the engineering
...
 > junk box.  So I'd presume when you say rare,
your referring to actively
> traded
> survivors as SBC colltors like me may already have one (not yet!).
>
> >As far as the color, chip collectors refer to that color
> >chip as "purple".  If you look at it next to a normal
> >"gray" CerDIP, you can see the difference.   Besides,
> >it would not have mattered had it been black.  The fact
> >is, it's not the white/gold color of a normal Intel
> >C8080A.  The printing on the chip is also somewhat different.  My guess is
...
 > >it's a late run C8080A that was
>
>
> It's very late run ceramic.  Ceramic for chip substrates only comes from a
...
   few
 vendors one being a beer maker in the rockies a few in the far east and
 Europe.
 It was part of the reason why ceramic parts were more expensive and also
 a near must if the part was required to pass tests for hermetic sealing
 (military,
 space or other high stress apps).

 Ceramic aging/dating:

 Starting with the 1960s ceramic was white.

     early  White

     examples were
             early military Flatpacks(RTL/DTL/TTL)
             1101, 1103 ram
             1702 eprom

 first brown parts I'd seen were 2708s

              brown (light)
     later   dark brown
              Gray
              Gray with brownish cast
              Gray with purplish cast

 Those were the most common.  Eproms were generaltionally in the common
 ceramic of the time.

 Allison