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EEVblog #1341 - AMAZING $250,000 IBM Processor TEARDOWN!

EEVblog1 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2021–2022
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demo · intermediate · evergreen · 2021–2022 on HN

Dave Jones of EEVblog tears down a 1991 IBM 9121 thermal conduction module from a System/390 mainframe, a 63-layer ceramic hybrid module with 2772 pins worth about $250,000, and demonstrates a BGA desoldering technique.

Cited in threads on chip packaging and cooling as a vivid look at vintage IBM mainframe module construction.

Repair, teardowns & right to repairHistory of computingComputer architecture & CPUs#ibmsystem/390#teardown#ceramicmodule#chippackaging

3 comments from Hacker News

@nom2021-01 · in “IBM paperweight teardown: Reverse-engineering 1970s memory chips”

All the vintage mainframe stuff is pretty mind blowing. There is an awesome hidden gem on YouTube: CPU Galaxy. He has a huge collection of vintage CPUs. IBM 9121 Mainframe CPU link Dave from EEVBlog also made a video about it ▶ this video

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@ilyt2022-12 · in “One Startup’s Cooling Chip May Surge Processor Power”

This one does[1]. It have a bunch of pistons on springs touching each chiplet, all in mineral oil. Price bit out of range for typical desktop user tho * ▶ this video

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@formerly_proven2021-08 · in “An inside look at the custom CPUs in Tesla's Dojo Supercomputer”

The thermal solution and packaging looks a lot like mainframe systems from the 80s (IBM, Siemens, Japanese). Siemens H100: link link IBM: ▶ this video

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