Forgotten PC History - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

9 Aug 2008

Roy J. Tellason wrote:
...
  There were also those "flatpacks" which I
never could figure out.  A 
 precursor
 to surface mount?  Something else? 
Eric Smith wrote:
...
  Yes, for military applications.  For instance, the
Apollo Guidance
 Computer is full of chips in flatpacks.

 I'm not an expert on early IC packaging, but AFAIK the flatpack predated
 the DIP.  Prior to the DIP, most ICs had 10 pins or fewer, and were
 offered in flatpacks or round metal cans. 
Here is a picture of a circuit board which is a flight spare for the 
Instrumentation Unit
of the Saturn V showing the flat packs IBM designed for the Apollo missions:

http://www.iamvirtual.ca/collection/space/SaturnVIUBoard.html