Xionics XipChip1

It was the late 90s and high integration was the name of the game. Xionics (based in Burlington, Mass) and IBM set out to create an intelligent peripheral controller meant to replace logic/ASICs in printers, copiers, and other imaging products with something more useful.  Xionics was originally founded in 1978 in the U.K.  and in the 1980s began making document imaging products.

The XipChip1 is what they came up with. It is a PowerPC 401 core, running at 40MHz with 2KB I Cache + 1KB D Cache made on a 0.36u 4-Layer CMOS process at IBMs plant in Bromont Canada. They included a JPEG engine, DMA controller, Raster Graphics Engine, and a 240MHz RAMBUS controller (hey it was the 90s, RAMBUS was all the rage).  Xionics sold their technology to a number of printer companies (Ricoh, Panasonic, Xerox, HP and many others) and their software was widely adopted. By 1999 Xionics was bought out by Oak Technology which was acquired by Zoran in 2003.

Soviet Vostok K573RF23 – 2kx4 – 1984

This EPROM, made in November of 1984 at the Soviet Vostok factory in Novosibirsk started life as a 2716 2kx8 EPROM.  A Soviet 2716 would be marked as 573RF2, whereas this particular example is marked 573RF23.  The die is a 2716 that was found to be defective, and thus converted to a  2kx4 EPROM, this is denoted by the adding of the 3 to the part number.  This certainly was not an uncommon procedure, even Intel regularly sold 2708 EPROMs as 2704s, whether to use a die with an imperfection, or to simply meet demand.

There are two other interesting markings on this particular EPROM.  First is the CCCP logo, this is the State Quality Mark of the USSR.  This quality mark was used to signify that products met the following conditions:

• “meets or exceeds the quality of the best international analogs”,
• parameters of quality are stable,
• goods fully satisfy Soviet state standards,
• goods are compatible with international standards,
• production of goods is economically effective and
• they satisfy the demands of the state economy and the population.

Meeting these conditions allowed the factory to sell such devices at a 10% premium.  So not only was Vostok able to pass a defective part as a quality part, they were able to do so and make a bit extra revenue.  Thats something Intel would be quite envious of.

Some references show that 573RF23 as being the equivalent of a 2758 EPROM (5V 2708).  This is in fact incorrect.  A 2716 converted to a 2708 is done so simply by removing a single address line (going from 11 to 10)  The 573RF23 retains 11 address lines, but it removes 4 data lines, thus making it 2kx4, same number of address locations, but each locations contains only 4 bits, vs 8 bits.  Rewiring address lines likely did not allow for a working EPROM due to where the defect was, thus cutting the word size down.  The first condition of the State Quality Mark is that said EPROM should meet or exceed the best international analog.  Intel did not make a 2kx4 EPROM, the closest western analog would be the Harris/Intersil IM6657, though it was made in CMOS, vs the 573RF23s NMOS, so one could say that it was easy to beat a analog that did not exist.

The other mark on this EPROM is OTK, which literally means “Technical Control Department,” in others words this part passed the quality control dept, hopefully after it was converted to the lower capacity device, and them marked with the State Quality Mark.  Perhaps it was the best NMOS 2kx4 EPROM the world was to see, certainly it came in a beautiful package.

HP C5061-3012 – 16 Bit – 4 MHz – 1984

In last months article on HP’s 16 bit processors we mentioned it was made in a reduced version (on an enhanced NMOS III process).  This CPU was known as the C5061-3012.  It contains only a BPC (Binary Processor Chip) and no EMC or IOC.  It was meant for simpler designs, such as a tape controller, but also in some other HP test equipment.  While a simpler implementation, it would seem that HP chose to continue the use of rather beautiful, and highly delicate packaging.  This example was made in 1984, a time when most other ICs were grey ceramic or plastic, not a white/gold ceramic package.

This was meant to mounted to a heatsink, which dissipated the heat as well as protected the wafer this ceramic (the package, other than where the die is, is less than 1mm thick)