4 ms·

I'm impressed that surface mount components existed in the 1970s and in consumer electronics that early. I've taken apart VCRs and game consoles from the 80s an

by yardie 5y ago

I'm impressed that surface mount components existed in the 1970s and in consumer electronics that early. I've taken apart VCRs and game consoles from the 80s and they were DIP mounted and through-hole circuit boards for all of the ones I've come across. I didn't realize the SX-70 was so cutting edge.

dboreham 5y ago
I believe they always existed, but were not widely used until the late 1980s when pressure to reduce size and cost became dominant and pin counts on packages rose above the limit for DIP. I worked in the industry at the time and remember the transition. You had to ask assembly houses if they had reflow capability, automatic pick and place, etc, otherwise they couldn't manufacture SMT.
kens 5y ago
Texas Instruments' surface-mount miniDIP chips were "new and risky but cheap", and one of the innovations that made their second design of the Polaroid circuitry successful. Aerospace had been using a lot of surface-mount in the 1960s, e.g. the Apollo Guidance Computer. But consumer electronics didn't really use surface mount until about 1990. I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner.
- mulmen 5y ago
  The AGC is a fascinating device. It used 60% of the ICs produced in the United States in 1963. If you are interested in the AGC I suggest this excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM&t=454s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM&t=454s.
  - morsch 5y ago
    I think he has, in fact, shown a passing interest in the AGC in the past. ;) http://www.righto.com/search/label/Apollo http://www.righto.com/search/label/Apollo
    - mulmen 5y ago
      Haha! I didn't look at the username!
  - pengaru 5y ago
    > The AGC is a fascinating device. It used 60% of the ICs produced in the United States in 1963. As written I interpreted this as saying the AGC used 60% of the kinds of ICs produced in the US in '63. But it's not that, it used 60% of the production capacity. No, the AGC is not a machine utilizing over half of the IC designs produced at the time. This number says more about the nascent state of the industry the AGC was drawing from than anything else.
- monocasa 5y ago
  Do you know anything about the manufacturing process? I always connect most of the benefits of surface mount with reflow soldering and pick and place machines. I doubt they used pick and place in 1972 for consumer goods, but maybe you can just have assembly line workers placing by hand before before the line runs through a reflow oven?
  - buescher 5y ago
    There's such a thing as a manual pick and place machine. I agree, though, it would fascinating to know how these were assembled.
- buescher 5y ago
  I first saw surface mount parts in a camcorder viewfinder - flea market find - I picked up in 1985 or 1986. I don't think I even read about them until the 90s otherwise. I was surprised the first time I found out how far back they went. There must have been a huge chicken-and-egg problem involved in bringing them to the mainstream.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I never knew that aspect of the AGC. I knew the core memory was "sewn" by women at Raytheon but I wasn't aware it wasn't just standard core. The guy who ran software at the Instrumentation lab (and had literally written the book on orbital mechanics) did once give a talk where he related an anecdote of some of the astronauts visiting Raytheon to, as he put it, reinforce that they should really be careful lest these nice young men die.
- bsder 5y ago
  > I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner. Soldering, mostly, if I remember correctly. Discrete components (SMD resistors, capaictors, inductors) really liked to tombstone. Process control was difficult and expensive. Solder wasn't levelled (look at the picture--the solder covers the copper traces) and we didn't have things like ENIG. This was 1972. Computer-based process control was being invented by these folks. SMT didn't really get going until the mid-1980s.
unobtaniumstool 5y ago
I was surprised by that too. I took apart a lot of electronics as a kid and distinctly remember it being mostly components with leads.

by yardie 5y ago

dboreham 5y ago

I believe they always existed, but were not widely used until the late 1980s when pressure to reduce size and cost became dominant and pin counts on packages rose above the limit for DIP. I worked in the industry at the time and remember the transition. You had to ask assembly houses if they had reflow capability, automatic pick and place, etc, otherwise they couldn't manufacture SMT.

kens 5y ago

Texas Instruments' surface-mount miniDIP chips were "new and risky but cheap", and one of the innovations that made their second design of the Polaroid circuitry successful. Aerospace had been using a lot of surface-mount in the 1960s, e.g. the Apollo Guidance Computer. But consumer electronics didn't really use surface mount until about 1990. I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner.

mulmen 5y ago
The AGC is a fascinating device. It used 60% of the ICs produced in the United States in 1963. If you are interested in the AGC I suggest this excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM&t=454s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J2RMorJXM&t=454s.
- morsch 5y ago
  I think he has, in fact, shown a passing interest in the AGC in the past. ;) http://www.righto.com/search/label/Apollo http://www.righto.com/search/label/Apollo
  - mulmen 5y ago
    Haha! I didn't look at the username!
- pengaru 5y ago
  > The AGC is a fascinating device. It used 60% of the ICs produced in the United States in 1963. As written I interpreted this as saying the AGC used 60% of the kinds of ICs produced in the US in '63. But it's not that, it used 60% of the production capacity. No, the AGC is not a machine utilizing over half of the IC designs produced at the time. This number says more about the nascent state of the industry the AGC was drawing from than anything else.
monocasa 5y ago
Do you know anything about the manufacturing process? I always connect most of the benefits of surface mount with reflow soldering and pick and place machines. I doubt they used pick and place in 1972 for consumer goods, but maybe you can just have assembly line workers placing by hand before before the line runs through a reflow oven?
- buescher 5y ago
  There's such a thing as a manual pick and place machine. I agree, though, it would fascinating to know how these were assembled.
buescher 5y ago
I first saw surface mount parts in a camcorder viewfinder - flea market find - I picked up in 1985 or 1986. I don't think I even read about them until the 90s otherwise. I was surprised the first time I found out how far back they went. There must have been a huge chicken-and-egg problem involved in bringing them to the mainstream.
ghaff 5y ago
I never knew that aspect of the AGC. I knew the core memory was "sewn" by women at Raytheon but I wasn't aware it wasn't just standard core. The guy who ran software at the Instrumentation lab (and had literally written the book on orbital mechanics) did once give a talk where he related an anecdote of some of the astronauts visiting Raytheon to, as he put it, reinforce that they should really be careful lest these nice young men die.
bsder 5y ago
> I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner. Soldering, mostly, if I remember correctly. Discrete components (SMD resistors, capaictors, inductors) really liked to tombstone. Process control was difficult and expensive. Solder wasn't levelled (look at the picture--the solder covers the copper traces) and we didn't have things like ENIG. This was 1972. Computer-based process control was being invented by these folks. SMT didn't really get going until the mid-1980s.

unobtaniumstool 5y ago

I was surprised by that too. I took apart a lot of electronics as a kid and distinctly remember it being mostly components with leads.