🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct5.134702.7667@news.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
>
>There's another side to this legend, though.  Originally, in the 1965 era,
>the word flip-chip was a reference to the hybrid integrated circuits DEC
>was trying to use.  By the end of the decade, though, DEC was assertively
>referring to the logic modules themselves as flip chips.  Thus, every M
>series logic module I've got seems to say FLIP CHIP across the top of the
>module right under the handle (except the M211, which says DEC FLIP CHIP).
>It seems clear that by 1970, DEC wanted people to call the modules
>themselves flip chips.

Absolutely.  DEC exaggerated the importance of the original Flip-Chips to the
point that they had to support the name for virtually the entire product line
of modules, whether Flip-Chips were part of the construction or not.

But if you look at the early literature, such as the somewhat hyped pictures
in the early Logic Handbooks, etc., it's clear that they are intending to
focus in on DEC's "high-tech" production capabilities of Flip-Chips, and to
take the focus away from the ordinary techniques that DEC, as a module maker,
used to produce modules no better or worse than a dozen other module houses.
This is likely a carry-over from an earlier era when DEC wasn't a computer
maker but rather a module-only house for other companies.  Can anyone cite a
specific machine from another company that was actually made out of DEC modules
but wasn't "heralded" as such (Circa 1957-1961 in all probability).

BTW, I have a relatively rare publication about Flip-Chips.  Before them, DEC
made only Systems Modules, which are much larger and always using discrete
components.  They are characterized by aluminum frame strips, larger connectors
and all-digit module numbers.  The handbook that describes them is an 8.5 x 11"
book of overall higher quality than most later DEC paper-backs such as the
Logic Handbooks.  There was a singular "transition" publication which is
essentially the precursor to the entire family of Logic Handbooks that 
discusses Flip-Chip modules; it's a 1964 Flip-Chip Handbook and is of the
same quality.  Because the paper quality is so much better, it has not yellowed
and the thick paper stock binding hasn't broken.  The one year or more newer
Logic Handbooks have all since deteriorated severely :-(.

cjl