Which DEC machine made use of th pre Flip-Chip board?

Paul Koning paulkoning at comcast.net
Fri Dec 21 07:47:28 CST 2018



> On Dec 21, 2018, at 8:19 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> ...
> The DEC brochure for it (P5141) is a little puzzling; it says (p. 2) that
> "INTEGRATED CIRCUITS are basic elements of the low cost, newly designed
> silicon FLIP CHIP modules used throughout PDP-7", but AFAIK, the first FLIP
> CHIPs (R-series, B-series, etc) were all transistors; the later M-series were
> the first ones to have ICs. Maybe this is some old meaning of "integrated
> circuits"?
> 
> 	Noel

It's odd wording for sure, and doesn't feel like a common use of the term from before the arrival of monolithic integrated circuits.  But there is some precedent; through the 1970s if not somewhat later there were "hybrid integrated circuits", often found in high performance A/D and D/A converters.  Those are essentially compact circuit modules, but typically with unusual substrates like ceramic ones instead of PC boards, and surface mount components when PCBs used all through-hole components.  So "integrated circuit" wasn't limited to the "monolithic" kind back then.

I sometimes refer to "hollow state integrated circuits" to describe the complete multi-stage amplifier in a single package built by Loewe of Germany in the 1930s; look for "Loewe 3NF".

	paul



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