
Die photos and analysis of the revolutionary 8008 microprocessor (2016) - Tomte
http://www.righto.com/2016/12/die-photos-and-analysis-of_24.html
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variaga
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13250949](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13250949)

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jakeogh
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19509810](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19509810)
How to open a microchip and see what's inside

[http://www.visual6502.org/images/6502/layers_index.html](http://www.visual6502.org/images/6502/layers_index.html)
6502 Images

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trilinearnz
Probably the most accessible introduction to dies that I've seen. Really
informative.

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dboreham
Dice?

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bogomipz
The picture under the heading "The structure of the chip" has two arrows
pointing to polysilicon regions. Does anyone know why the polysilicon region
that the upper arrows points to is os much larger than the polysilicon regions
that the lower arrow points to? They seem like a couple of order of magnitude
larger.

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Mitzz
I know slightly less than nothing about this topic, but I remember reading
this from a while back:

"Notes for reversers Electron holes have more effective mass, and therefore
less mobility. P-type regions are thus made bigger than N-type regions to
compensate. The size disparity often differentiates P-type and N-type
silicon."

Source:
[http://siliconzoo.org/tutorial.html](http://siliconzoo.org/tutorial.html)

Maybe that is helpful...?

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bogomipz
What a great link, thanks! I had not seen this before.

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tomc1985
Looks kind of like Factorio!

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Robelius
Nah not enough spaghetti

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Arbalest
I'm curious, what could be made out of a processor in the order of 4000
transistors as here, but with entirely modern chip design and fabrication
tech? What could you put out on TSMC's 7nm, presumably an extremely small
wafer.

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sand500
maybe the cpu in a sd card?

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close04
Apparently those are derivative of a much newer controller, the Intel 8051
(1980), heavily modified, running at up to 450MHz, and with added hardware
accelerators.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51#Use_as_intellectu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51#Use_as_intellectual_property)

