Industrial Archeology: the 50 year old serial port chip

50 years ago a serial port would have been a stand alone state-of-the-art bit of silicon. This is a General Instruments AY-5-1013A found on a old DEC PDP11 minicomputer board.
More photos may be found on my blog: electronupdate.blogspot.com
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[@EEVblog]

1971 was almost 50 years ago? Bullshi........... oh, damn.

[@Tommyinoz1971]

Lol, I think we are about the same age.

[@Gaark]

Tell me about it mate, gettin sort of scary to think about now >.< lol

[@marcorizza274]

Seeing Dave here tells a lot about the quality of this channel 👍🏻

[@SwitchingPower]

The chip division of General Instruments is now Microchip Technology

[@marcorizza274]

Always interesting videos!

[@jbuchana]

Wow, 49 years... I was 9 years old then, and just starting to learn about electronics beyond crystal radios and battery/lamp circuits. For my 9th birthday, I got a soldering iron and a few years later I was building microcomputers with parts bought at hamfests with lawn-mowing money. Later I worked at GM on a Calma GDSII system an early CAD system that was developed for IC layout. The division I worked in actually used the system to design hybrid circuits made of ceramic with the traces and components screened on and fired in ovens. Flip chips (upside down IC dies soldered directly to the substrate) were designed in another area. We mostly made modules for use underhood such as voltage regulators for alternators. This was in the '80s at Delco Electronics in Kokomo, IN. My path veered away from design and into IT after that. I still live in Kokomo...

[@justDIY]

amazing

[@Waccoon]

I never tire of seeing die shots, especially the old ones where everything was manually drawn by hand. Each chip has its own quirks and personality depending on the skill of the designers and the general layout rules followed at the company. GI chips aren't the most dense and efficient, but they are among the prettiest. 8)