
Photographing computers to show the art inside the black box - rbanffy
https://boingboing.net/2019/01/24/cray-aesthetics.html
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samstave
When I was at Intel, I recall that in (SC5?) they had a lot of the processor
design diagrams on the wall as art. They are beautiful.

Also, they turned the bad chips from fabs into keychains - with all the CPU
Circuitry revealed behind a dollop of clear epoxy - had that as my keychain
for nearly a decade.

Core memory is really cool - and just in case you like some of this
[https://www.reddit.com/r/cableporn/](https://www.reddit.com/r/cableporn/) is
a good place...

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ghostbrainalpha
That's really interesting. Not sure if this would be your area, but I'm just
wondering how many "bad chips" you would have had.

Like what is the failure rate during manufacture, and what is actually
happening when something goes wrong on the assembly line?

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coldtea
>* but I'm just wondering how many "bad chips" you would have had. Like what
is the failure rate during manufacture*

It's quite common in cpu manufacturing -- called "yield" (how many good cpus
you get):

"Once the front-end process has been completed, the semiconductor devices are
subjected to a variety of electrical tests to determine if they function
properly. The proportion of devices on the wafer found to perform properly is
referred to as the yield. Manufacturers are typically secretive about their
yields, but it can be as low as 30%. Process variation is one among many
reasons for low yield"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabricati...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication)

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allwynpfr
Kinda disappointed to not see a single photo in the entire piece, but a nice
real overall

