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Were these early ICs prototyped with discrete components on breadboards? Simulated with programs on mainframes? I assume most of the drafting for the masking wa
by spilk 10y ago
Were these early ICs prototyped with discrete components on breadboards? Simulated with programs on mainframes? I assume most of the drafting for the masking was done manually.
Just curious how the design process worked at this stage in the game.
- kens 10y agoThey simulated the 8008's logic on a PDP-8 and a timeshare computer. The drafting was done manually. Each layer of the chip was cut by hand from a big sheet of red plastic film known as Rubylith. That is, every transistor and every wire was cut out with an X-acto knife. These sheets were then photographically reduced for the chip masks. If you visit the Computer History Museum, there's a Rubylith on the wall from a memory chip. See the very interesting 8008 oral history for more information: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/07/102657982-05-01-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201...
- spilk 10y agoThanks for this. I love the Computer History Museum so much. I need to make time for another visit out there...