Comment by jdiff
16 hours ago
The article mentions this, but this was before CPUs had lids. When delidding a CPU, you have to be very careful not to crack the silicon die that you are applying force directly to. In the case of this Athlon, even care wasn't enough.
Interestingly, AMD's previous gen processors, the K6/K6-2/K6-III, were all lidded flip chips. A delidded K6-era CPU looks remarkably similar to the early Athlons which did away with the lid.
There are three good pieces of history for you to look at.
First, the NexGen Nx686 prototype... that became the K6 after AMD bought NexGen.
https://web.archive.org/web/19990901212245/http://www.sandpi...
https://web.archive.org/web/20000831030211/http://www.sandpi...
https://web.archive.org/web/20000831030227/http://www.sandpi...
Second, the AMD K6 prototype... which came in a small footprint ceramic package.
https://www.cpushack.com/chippics/AMD/K6/AMDK6-Processor-CA-...
Third, the AMD K7... which also came in that small footprint ceramic package, on a Slot A PCB, with L2 cache chips.
http://www.cpu-galerie.de/html/amdk7athlonslot.html
Enjoy!
Man I sort of miss the cartridge CPU. I get why it's not a thing anymore, but man was it fun to slot in a CPU like you would an old SNES game.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49407748
Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Pentium 4 had lids. AMD Athlon XP did not.