Reverse engineering old chips Ken Shirriff

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Die photos: Metallurgical microscope Shines light from above through lens Now I want to step back from specific <strong>chips</strong> and explain how I get these photos. The secret is a metallurgical microscope. Normal microscopes shine light from below, which works okay for cells, but not for opaque ICs. The metallurgical microscope has this goofy light unit that shines light from above, so the chip is illuminated. You can try a regular microscope and a flashlight but this works a lot better. You can spend a whole lot on microscopes but I got this one on eBay for a couple hundred dollars.
Stitch photos together for high-resolution Then I take a bunch of photos and stitch them together into a high-resolution image with a program called Hugin.
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Reverse engineering old chips Ken S
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Z80 (1976) Brq Wait Bak Wr Rd Irq M
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Instruction decoding PLA Instructio
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MOS transistors Drain Gate Source
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NAND gate +5 +5 Out 0 Out 1 1 Input
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NAND gate +5 Inputs Output Transist
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Gates get weird in the ALU +5 Out 4
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Sinclair Scientific Calculator (197
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Can see bits in the 320-word instru
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Intel shift-register memory (1970)
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More info: righto.com/shift
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Collector Collector Base Base Emitt
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What bipolar transistors really loo
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PNP transistor
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Interactive chip viewer More info:
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741 op amp
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More info: righto.com/741
Page 36 and 37: 7805 voltage regulator 7-25V in 5V
Page 38 and 39: A family of regulators from one chi
Page 40 and 41: Stitch photos together for high-res
Page 42 and 43: Motorola 6820 PIA chip
Page 44 and 45: Easy way: download die photos zepto
Page 46 and 47: Current project: 8008 analysis
Page 48 and 49: Reverse engineering old chips Ken S
Page 50 and 51: Z80 (1976) Brq Wait Bak Wr Rd Irq M
Page 52 and 53: Instruction decoding PLA Instructio
Page 54 and 55: MOS transistors Drain Gate Source T
Page 56 and 57: NAND gate +5 +5 1 Inputs 1 Out 0 0
Page 58 and 59: NAND gate +5 Inputs Output Transist
Page 60 and 61: Gates get weird in the ALU +5 Out 4
Page 62 and 63: Sinclair Scientific Calculator (197
Page 64 and 65: Can see bits in the 320-word instru
Page 66 and 67: Intel shift-register memory (1970)
Page 68 and 69: More info: righto.com/shift Here’
Page 70 and 71: Collector Collector Base Base Emitt
Page 72 and 73: What bipolar transistors really loo
Page 74 and 75: PNP transistor PNP transistors are
Page 76 and 77: Interactive chip viewer More info:
Page 78 and 79: 741 op amp On the die you can see t
Page 80 and 81: Current mirror “Clone” a curren
Page 82 and 83: Unusual current mirror transistors
Page 84 and 85: Vin Gnd Vsense Vout Here’s my die
Page 88 and 89: Hugin takes some practice Tip: have
Page 90 and 91: How to get to the die? Photo: zepto
Page 92 and 93: Acid-free way: chips without epoxy
Page 94: Blog: righto.com ken.shirriff@gmail
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Reverse engineering old chips Ken Shirriff

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