Updated April 20th, 2011

2011: I haven't updated this page in some time. I still plan to recode most all of the site and have around 4000 new CPUs to add (yes THAT many) I aqm just waiting until I have the resources (financial and time) to build the site to support it. I added the blog as a way to more easily post research articles and other insight into computer archeology as well as post the occasional interesting chip I come across,

In the last year or so I have received many donatuons from individuals, as well as various IC companies. I am very grateful for those as they greatly have anhanced the museum. In recent months I have sought to aquire samples (often NEW) of modern embedded processors, typically ARM, and MIPS cored, as these are really driving the technology of our age, and while immensely popular, finding them in good shape 'in the wild' is fairly challenging.

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I have always been interested in CPUs and collecting things, so in 1999 I decided to put them together and began collecting CPUs. I bought some off of eBay, I got many from old boat anchor computers and many many more were generously donated from people at various forums around the web. When I had roughly 400 processors I began to scan them in (front and back) ohhh what a tedious job that was. I now have 1188 (as of 09-13-2004) unique CPUs in the collection, from 66 different manufactures. They range in speed from 108kHz to 1.7GHz. and span 31 years of computer history.

The CPU Shack went live January 30, 2002 and has been growing ever since.

On May 12th 2004 the CPU Shack finally passed 1000 CPUs. Its been over 5 years of collecting and it is now hard to find stuff I don't have. (though there is a ton). Wow, what a fascinating experience this has been. The amount of information now available about older CPUs is staggering and the camadre of fellow collectors is building.

Due to the large amount of pictures and bandwidth the site now uses I have had to include the ads via the Google Adsense program, they are generally text based and are content driven (ie they are related to whats on this site). They, thankfully, have offset the cost of hosting this page.

I've decided to forgo listing specs for every CPU now. I am going to concentrate on making a reference section for collectors and others who are interested. I think this is needed more then specs and is very much interesting and relevant. I will eventually add specs (though they may come from others). In lew of this I have changed the specs page to 'reference.' Thats all for now.

The collection continues to grow, as of June 2005 we are now over 1450 CPUs. I am beginning to concentrate on specific fields of CPUs now, such as the AMD 29k series and Cyrix chips. Both are no longer made and were very interesting in their time.

Newest Updates:

Well its a new year and I figured I'd point some things out. First off, wow what a year, The CPU Shack now has over 1700 CPU's. For some reason I decided to do something different and also collect EPROM's. The older type with a window for UV light in them, few people yet collect them so I figured it is a natural progression. The Museum now has almost 300 different EPROM's. Thank you all for the donations.

2007: A new year bring new chips. Currently the CPU market is at a low, kinda like the real esate market, however, I expect a decent rebound this summer. I have had an influx of Intel Engineering Samples which is just amazing. I hope that one of these days Intel becomes a little less harsh about its ES's chips, and allows collectors better access to them. 206 brought record numbers of CPU's to the collection. We gained over one CPU per day for the entire year. 2007 is already on track to be even bigger (mainly because I have so many chips from '06 that didnt get posted yet lol)

Here is an interesting table of how we have grown:

Year	January CPU's	December CPU's	Growth
2002	~620	717	97
2003	717	866	149
2004	866	1213	347
2005	1213	1571	358
2006	1571	2109	538

In only five years we have grown by almost 1500 CPU's. (not to mention several hundred EPROM's)

This is about half of the collection in June of 2005 in some display cases I made. There is about 200 CPUs in each case.

How can you help?
You can help in many ways, if you have old computers their CPUs can be donated to the museum. If you work for a company that produces CPUs you can also donate CPUs. Many computers are sold for scrap and their very collectible CPUs are sold as scrap. It's a shame to see computers history being melted down for a dollar or two of gold. If you have questions or comments or want to help the museum please feel free e-mail The CPU Shack. I can even make a note by the CPU you donate giving you credit on the website if you wish.

This site is rather costly to maintain, as is preserving the Museum. If you wish you can make a donation with Paypal.

Donations can also be sent directly to:
(I can reinburse shipping if needed)
John Culver
Curator
The CPU Shack
5040 Miller AVE
Klamath Falls, OR 97603
USA

PH# 503-260-8746