MPC79 Chip Photos

MPC79 Chip Photos

A VLSI Archive Page compiled by Lynn Conway

[V 11-20-07]

Historical background:

Following the success of her M.I.T '78 VLSI design course, Lynn Conway sought ways to dramatically scale up internet access to quick-turnaround chip prototyping, in order to enable wider testing, refinement and evaluation of the new Mead-Conway design methods. In the spring of 1979 she conceived of a new type of internet-based implementation infrastructure for this purpose, and announced its availability to students taking Mead-Conway courses in the fall of '79.

In a crash-effort that summer at PARC, Alan Bell and Martin Newell created a software prototype of the new "MPC System". Lynn's team used the new system to support rapid prototyping of student design projects at many universities that fall, in a large-scale experimental demonstration-trial of the new VLSI design and implementation methods called "MPC79". MPC79 played a vital role in the rapid evolution and validation of the Mead-Conway design methods, and the rapid propagation of the methods into over 100 universities and scores of startup companies within just several years.

This page links to scans of the original MPC79 chip photos [PDF: 32p; 5.8mb], along with pages from the MPC79 Implementation Documentation that locate and identify project die-types and individual projects. High resolution JPGs of each die-type can be accessed via the links below and via the VLSI Archive Spreadsheet.

MPC79 Chip Photos PDF (32p; 5.8mb)

Contents:

Wafer maps showing locations of die-types .…………………………………………………......2

Maps of the 12 project die-types, showing positions of all 82 projects .…………………………...3

Photo of MPC79 wafer type A and packaged, wire-bonded project AE-7………………………..4

List of project location codes and associated project-ID's …………………………………….….5

List of projects identifying designers and project functions ……………………………….……....6

Chip photos: AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, BI, BJ, BK, BL, BM, BN, BK-8, BK-5 …………14