Hardware Podcasts

005 - Circuits That Go Nowhere

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 6 Nov 2017 · 57m

What this episode covers

Ken Shirriff, a reverse engineer and blogger, details his process for reverse engineering vintage integrated circuits, from decapping chips using safe acids to analyzing die photos with metallurgical microscopes. He discusses the restoration of the Xerox Alto computer, explaining how he and collaborators resolved hardware mismatches and reverse-engineered its complex microcode using logic analyzers. The conversation covers specific historical chips like the 8008 and Z80, highlighting design quirks such as 4-bit ALUs in 8-bit processors and the use of current mirrors in analog circuits.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Computer History Museum, Living Computer Museum
Products
Xerox Alto, Sinclair Calculator, IBM 1401
Chips
8008, Z80, ARM 1, Beagle Bone
Tools
LTSpice
Also
righto.com, Visual 6502, Siliconpr0n, bitsavers.org, Hackaday Super Conference, John McMaster, Sedra and Smith, BCPL, Smalltalk

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