Inside a Mystery 1980s Filter IC Featuring Switched Capacitors
Recently [Ken Shirriff] got handed a mystery IC by [CuriousMarc] who had found said IC in a box of various old chips.
Executive Summary
Recently [Ken Shirriff] got handed a mystery IC by [CuriousMarc] who had found said IC in a box of various old chips. Labelled only with a date code of the 47th week of 1985 and a mysterious F1-10-5 alongside a logo that didn’t lead to any hits in the typical IC databases, it was up to [Ken] to figure out what lurks inside this CDIP chip. As it turns out, it’s actually a pretty interesting IC with an easy to identify die once the ceramic package had been cracked open with a surgical hammer-and-chisel strike.
Open Silicon & Gate-Level Hardware Inspection
From a silicon and hardware engineering viewpoint: - **Interface Neutrality:** Mitigates dependency on proprietary BSPs, empowering open toolchains to address hardware directly. - **Supply Chain Verification:** Schematics and open pinouts allow deterministic audits against silicon errata. - **Lifecycle Decoupling:** Decouples physical hardware utility from commercial vendor end-of-life obsolescence.
Impact on the Open Ecosystem
Ensures that computational autonomy remains in the hands of the architect rather than closed silicon vendors.