Collectors Guide for Intel Microchips now Public Domain

[pphillips12]

I'm getting up in years and want to make sure my guide doesn't vanish when I do one of these days!

I have decided to release my Collectors Guide (the 4th edition) to the Public Domain.

I have updated the pdf and removed the copyright.

This work dedicated to the public domain

This work, originally copyrighted 2007, is now dedicated to the public domain, effective 5/2/2018

If you have a website dedicated to vintage microchips and would be interesting in hosting the public domain copy of my guide, PM me and I'll
send you a link to download a copy.

Enjoy!

Here's a link to download. Someone give it a try and see it it works. http://www.mediafire.com/file/ox5u11zz31ymmjd/Vintage_Intel_Microchips.pdf

A little history about how I came to write the guide

I'm a programmer by trade. Nothing to do with chips or chip design.
One night back around 1999-2000 I was looking for a processor to upgrade my desktop on EBAY and noticed someone had an auction for a "rare" variant of a processor. I think it was some kind of 486. The thought that some processors might be "rare" had never occurred to me so a did a search of RARE CPU and came back with quite a few hits including one titled something like "World's 1st microprocessor - Intel 4004".

I read the auction and thought this would look cool framed in my office!
The starting bid was only like $19.95. If I remember right it was a plastic package Intel 4004. I didn't even know at the time any other package types existed. I put a bid on it and forgot about it. A few days later I got an email that I had been outbid. The auction had ended and the chip had brought something like $200.00. Can't remember why it brought such a high price. Think it may have been an early date code?

I looked around and saw where some other black plastic 4004's had sold for much less. I thought "Wow! People are actually collecting these old chips".
Since there's a collectors guide for anything that people collect from blowtorches to fire hydrants, I fired off an email to the guy that had listed the "rare" P4004 and asked him if he knew where I could obtain the collectors guide for old microchips.

Luck would have it the guy that had sold that chip was himself a chip collector that knew quite a bit about the value and rarity of vintage microchips. I was surprised when he told me there was no collectors guide for vintage microchips. So I asked him, why don't you write one?

He laughed and said I had no idea how hard that would be. And he was right! I had no idea how hard it would be. If I had, I would never have tried to write one. But the more I thought about the more intrigued I was.
And what better way to learn about the first microprocessor than write a collectors guide! I mean how hard could it be? I had no clue.

I was going to include every early microprocessor. Intel, Texas Instruments, you name it. Hours every night, and most weekends, I worked. After a year I felt like I had not even made a dent, so I decided to limit the guide to just Intel and Intel 2nd source from the 4004 thru the Pentium. Another year I decided to limit the guide to Intel Only (no 2nd Source) and only cover the 4004 thru the 8088 but also cover all the support chips, RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, etc.

The thousands of photos in the guide were mostly scarfed from auctions over the years, but there was a major problem. The backgrounds in the photos were kitchen tables, and all different colors. The guide would look like crap with all these different backgrounds. The solution? Paint shop pro and a spray can. I very carefully sprayed the background the same color blue, on high magnification, between every pin. I think I probably spent a thousand hours just spraying the backgrounds out in pics.

After 3 years I was asking myself why did I ever try and do this. But I had spent so much time at that point I had to finish it.

I was so happy when it was finally done. I had taken about 5 years.
By the time the guide was done I had become a serious collector myself and had accumulated a large collection of rare chips, data catalogs, and other documentation.

When I released the 1st edition I immediately got a bunch of emails with pics of package varieties I did not know about. I quickly released a 2nd and 3rd edition and finally a 4th edition. I have saved pics of maybe a dozen interesting package varieties that have surfaced since the 4th edition, which is not that many.

Will there every be a 5th edition? Probably not from me. I've my part to preserve the history of the first microchips. Now it's up to you:) Maybe one of you reading this will spend the thousands of hours it would likely take to add all the Intel 2nd source chips and package varieties and expand the guide to include all the early microcontrollers and chips thru the first Pentium. I wish you well!

I will leave you with this. In a thousand years, next to nothing you see in the news today will be remembered. But on the timeline of the history of man, there will still be a point that says 'fire' and a point that says the 'the wheel' but the biggest point will likely say 'The microchip'. Museums will all want an example of the first microchips under glass in their lobby and people will be able to stare at these priceless relics in awe because collectors like you preserved them!

-- George

[gekaufman]

If it does get posted could you please post a link? I'd love to read it.

Thanks!

- Gary

[Robev]

I am sure a number of members will be interested in hosting this

[gekaufman]

nimbet??

[cuttingedgecs]

Number. Although nimbet is a perfectly cromulent word.

[Robev]

Ack my big fingers and small phone keypad

[CPUShack]

I'll add it on cpushack.com

[edwardauskis]

[CPUShack]

[Robev]

[pphillips12]

[cvandijk]

[Vlasta]

Brilliant!!!

[Robev]

My only concern is that the pricing estimates George gives in the guide will have moved on since he produced this great work and may give some potential collectors the wrong idea on prices they may have to pay.

It would be good to see a footnote in the guide stating that the estimates of value relate to the time the guide was produced.

[pphillips12]