Trinkets for the cache -- or how a processor died a horrible death
When I start up the cache I want to leave a travel-bug to go somewhere for me. The real question is what that something is?
I was looking around and had a few thoughts... maybe the golf ball we found last time when we got lost, maybe something else.Then I had a flash of brilliance! I have a bunch of old CPUs of various vintages, maybe I can use that? All I would have to do is punch a hole in it for the ball chain and call it aday. No problem, right? Simple drill and done. Hell, constructing my turkey fryer I drilled through 1/4" steel bars.I pull out an old Pentium-133 from the drawer of parts. It's not seen power for more than a decade now. Why I kept it I might never know. Maybe I knew I would do this eventually.I took out the drill and tried to drill the ceramic case. That was a no go. It barely left a mark. The problem is the ceramic is hard enough that I don't have anything that can touch. Maybe a diamond drill or something, but that's not something I have in stock right now.Ok then, I'll pick a corner of the copper bottom and drill up. The biggest challenge could be to get through the die itself. Copper (or even steel for that matter) is relatively soft and can be drilled with a carbide bit.The bottom cap was no problem. I even chipped the chip a bit. Then, no go.
Ok, let's try the top. I was able to use various carbide implements to go through the top heat spreader. Then it stopped. I even used a drill bit I didn't care too much about to just go at it. Then the top glowed red and I knew it was game over."If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer."And I did.I picked up a nearby hammer and hunted down a nail. Setting the nail into the hold I drilled in the top I brought the hammer down. And I had a hole. Well it was more of a crater. This processor (A Pentium) is destined to never work again.
Looking at that just makes me sad. Though I guess I can finally get rid of that motherboard I've been holding onto. (Or... maybe slice it up and use that as stuff for caches! W00t!)But I had a thought... how else can I attach a key chain to a processor?Well, I have a bunch of gold-plated pins that would be ideal for soldering. I'll just solder the chain to the chip. A better idea would be to solder a bit of braided steel to it to make a loop with the travel-bug already attached then solder that contraption onto the pins directly. It's not that different from wave soldering it onto a board really.Then I came to thinking: looking at the chip is pretty damn cool. This is the first time I saw an advanced chip de-capped like that. I bet other folks would be just as interested.Out comes the poor AMD K5 waiting to meet its fate.This time, I just shaved off a bit of the cap -- enough to get a blade under it -- and then just popped it off. It seems that it was simply glued and soldered onto the ceramic.
This was more like it!The steel loop is just a formality really -- that's something I know will work just fine! (Though I'll probably have to buy some acid-core solder. It's bad for electronics, but, well, this is art now not electronics!)Go to the SmugMug site to see the pics full-res. They are pretty... or pretty gory depending.[smugmug url="http://photos.vec.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=14036044_oqzVy&format=rss200" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="lightbox" captions="false" sort="true" window="true" smugmug="true" size="L"]