CDC Cyber 205 A68 Gate Array  
Written by AnubisTTP on 2024-12-30  

 

Description

This very unusual device is an ECL gate array prototype intended for use in a Control Data Corporation CDC Cyber 205 supercomputer. Each ECL gate array contains 168 logic gates; thousands were required in the construction of a complete Cyber 205. The gate arrays are designed to be actively cooled with a Freon refrigeration system, which required the use of a specialized leadless ceramic carrier with a heat spreader that extends beyond the bottom of the chip package. When installed inside a Cyber 205, the heat spreaders on each gate array would directly contact copper pipes filled with Freon, which would cool the chips down to operating temperature. The examples shown here are pre-production engineering samples, which have an open cavity that allows the die inside to be clearly seen. Production gate arrays would have a metal lid covering the chip die. This gate array is believed to have been made sometime between 1982 and 1983.

An interesting side story is that a larger version of this chip was produced by Motorola for use by the Control Data Corporation spinoff ETA in a new type of cryogenically cooled supercomputer; the ETA-10. This larger gate array, which was packaged in a flat ceramic carrier with contact pads along all four edges, would have contained approximately 8000 gates. The ETA-10, which was designed to operated while immersed in a bath of liquid nitrogen, had only limited commercial production.

More

CDC Cyber 205 Chip
Control Data Corporation Cyber 205 A68 gate array prototype, shown without cavity lid.

Control Data Corporation Cyber 205 gate array CPU
A68 gate array die, 20x magnification. Each of the 56 sectors on the die surface contains 3 gates.

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