[HN Gopher] Die shots of as many CPUs and other interesting chip...
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Die shots of as many CPUs and other interesting chips as possible
Author : uticus
Score : 198 points
Date : 2025-10-17 18:39 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (commons.wikimedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (commons.wikimedia.org)
| roflmaostc wrote:
| Someone should sponsor that guy a gigapixel microscope such as
| those
|
| https://gallery.ramonaoptics.com/gallery/viewer/42009871001#...
| 7222aafdcf68cfe wrote:
| If you're into this, and enjoy more details, many more get
| published weekly on Mastodon under the #nakeddiefriday tag -
| https://infosec.exchange/tags/nakeddiefriday
| rft wrote:
| Another great resource is this site:
| https://misdake.github.io/ChipAnnotationViewer/?map=Zeppelin...
| It has a Google Maps like interface for exploring die shots and
| even some annotated versions of chips.
| 7373737373 wrote:
| See also: https://siliconpr0n.org/
| ttoinou wrote:
| Reminds me of Koooooooyanisqatsi
| mrcsharp wrote:
| I'm always fascinated by how brilliant us humans can be. So much
| so that we can put billions of transistors in very small spaces
| and in complex structures while also mass producing it.
|
| I highly recommend watching this video about lithography and the
| machine that makes it all possible [1].
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2482h_TNwg
| solarwindy wrote:
| Outstanding video, thank you. No wonder this took months' worth
| of research and animation to make.
| Velocifyer wrote:
| Branch Education makes good videos.
| atonse wrote:
| Never heard of this channel. I was mesmerized by this video,
| thanks. But I have to get back to Adulting for now.
| chrisgarand wrote:
| On the less serious side I like EvilmonkeyzDesignz youtube
| shorts.
|
| They generally looks for the doodles on older chips, but also
| looks at MEMs devices as well:
| https://www.youtube.com/@EvilmonkeyzDesignz
|
| They would definitely be able to add to the list (they have a
| video of 100 chips for their 100k subscriber mark).
| guerrilla wrote:
| Which one of the CPUs do you think looks the cleanest,
| aesthetically? The first Alpha looks rather chaotic, while the
| Samsung Alpha looks very uniform. That TI PA-7000 FPC looks like
| chaos. I think the two PowerPCs look the best, which is what I'd
| expect too. Well, actually I'd expect some of the other RISC to
| look simpler too...
| gblargg wrote:
| I was also fixed on PowerPC after noticing how regular the dies
| were. Cache on the right, then what looks like bank after bank
| of fairly uniform control logic. It's almost like they decided
| on a general structure and fit everything into this, rather
| than letting things organically form as needed.
| leptons wrote:
| >That TI PA-7000 FPC looks like chaos
|
| I think it looks very well structured compared to the Soviet
| KM1801VM2
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Birdman86#/media/Fil...
| potato-peeler wrote:
| Are there any shots of audio amplifiers?
| phkahler wrote:
| >> Are there any shots of audio amplifiers?
|
| https://www.righto.com/2020/06/reverse-engineering-and-compa...
|
| https://www.righto.com/2019/02/op-amp-on-moon-reverse-engine...
|
| https://www.righto.com/2018/06/silicon-die-analysis-op-amp-w...
| potato-peeler wrote:
| Realistically, are these enough to replicate the chips?
| dfox wrote:
| Mostly no. You do not see the lower layers and for anything sub
| 1um or so the resolution is too poor anyway.
| pbw wrote:
| To capture the individual transistors on a modern CPU, you'd
| need an image tens of terabytes in size, and it'd have to be
| captured by an electron microscope, not an optical image. And
| even that wouldn't let you see all the layers. Some of the very
| old CPUs, I'm not sure what resolution would be required.
| dan_hawkins wrote:
| Absolutely not. It's like opening a hood of your car, taking
| picture of what you see and then try to build replica of the
| engine based on that.
| intrasight wrote:
| Nice
|
| I have on my desk the book "State of the Art" by Stan Augarten.
| It shows the progression of transistors and integrated circuits
| from conception through 1983.
|
| The book was one of the inspirations for me to become an
| electrical engineer. My older brother loaned me a copy of it when
| it was published in 1983.
| Sweepi wrote:
| see also: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130561288@N04/ (yes,
| afaik flickr is still their main/only homepage except for
| Twitter: https://xcancel.com/fritzchensfritz)
| hyperbrainer wrote:
| I do not know enough to analyse these chips in any meaninful way,
| but is there a trend or cool feature to be seen across?
| sllabres wrote:
| A nice collection of die shots is on Fritzchens Fritz [1] on
| flickr
|
| [1]
| https://www.flickr.com/photos/130561288@N04/albums/721576504...
| atannen wrote:
| see also https://wikichip.org/
| foz wrote:
| I love these. The https://www.youtube.com/@EvilmonkeyzDesignz
| channel does some wonderful explorations of chips with high
| powered microscopes, finding easter eggs and graphics left by
| designers. So much fun.
| avipars wrote:
| His videos are really fun!
| mk89 wrote:
| How can someone explain this to a kid? Is there somewhere an even
| more simplified version than Arduino or similar to show how all
| these things actually work? I know arduino is not a cpu, but
| overall, how these things work together, would be great to
| see/show.
|
| I don't expect to show how electrons move :) I mean, some model,
| a toy or so, that shows how these things work. I remember it only
| from books/specs, but even there, at a certain point there are
| "limits" :)
| thessalchips wrote:
| I'm teaching a course on computer architecture at my university
| and there are these model processors called MUx (MU0-7) that
| explain how a CPU works from the ground up. I'm not aware of
| any toys (my students keep asking me about that as well), but I
| wrote an interactive visualizer that illustrates the simplest
| processor and how data moves through it:
| https://pascalbormann.de/mu-vis/ Not mobile friendly
| unfortunately and maybe a bit too advanced for kids, but it
| could be a starting point. The code is here if you want to
| build on it: https://github.com/Mortano/mu0-visualization
| thabit wrote:
| A breadboard CPU would be a good "toy" no?
| thessalchips wrote:
| True but to do anything interesting you do need a whole
| bunch of wires and components, even for an 8-bit CPU. Maybe
| it is a good start to instead combine gates to do some
| useful work. People are also building CPUs in Minecraft,
| that should get kids engaged :)
| jjk7 wrote:
| That's how I was taught, build up a CPU using TTL logic
| chips.
|
| Even just starting with the building blocks is useful,
| like build a flip-flop
| Quizzical4230 wrote:
| There is a famous video from Hitachi[^1] showing the Youngs
| double slit experiment[^2]. You may like it!
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PanqoHa_B6c
|
| [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
| pkaye wrote:
| You can see a simulation of an 6502 CPU running here.
|
| http://www.visual6502.org/JSSim/expert.html
|
| Also this person has some simple tutorial on how a toy CPUs
| work. He even made a simulator so you can make your own using
| gate logic.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZwneRb-zqA&list=PLFt_AvWsXl...
| devilbunny wrote:
| Some of the later steps may be beyond them, depending on the
| child's age, but Charles Petzold's wonderful book _Code_
| explains how you could set up a processor from logic gates with
| only a little handwaving.
|
| If they are a little older and interested, NAND 2 Tetris is a
| good self-paced course.
| ge96 wrote:
| Would be interesting if all of a sudden, a paradigm shift, all he
| chips are designed as concentric rings for some reason
| taraindara wrote:
| Imagine someone quietly developing, and then suddenly releasing
| a modern chip with this kind of design in mind. They'd get a
| lot of publicity just for being different. And the process
| would be their own, so if anyone likes it, or there turns out
| to be any benefits to the design, it would be a while until
| someone replicates it.
| anyfoo wrote:
| My feeling is that this would make bin packing on a silicon
| wafer less optimal?
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