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Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

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Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#31

Post by jacquesm »

magicalhippo wrote: post #11

Richi's Lab[1] also contains a large number of pictures and analysis of decapped ICs. He's also documented his decapping process[2] which uses an oven rather than the dangerous acids, making it more approachable. It's all in German, but Google Translate does a good enough job that it's easy to follow. He's got a very interesting comparison of STM32 originals and clones, as well as various voltage references, 555 time…

Interesting implementation of an on-chip heater, that's very neat. It really is a piece of art, you'd hang in on your wall at a nice large size just to look at.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#32

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #12
kens wrote: post #3

Any other suggestions for common yet generally unknown chips?

8051 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51 ). Still probably the most common microcontroller in existence, just because it's embedded in so many other ICs. 40 years old this year.

It's amazing how many of those old chips are still out there, but deep inside something else. I came across a 6502 embedded in a sensor SOC about 3 years ago. A 6502 for goodness sake.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#33

Post by magicalhippo »

mrunkel wrote: post #18
magicalhippo wrote: post #11

Richi's Lab[1] also contains a large number of pictures and analysis of decapped ICs. He's also documented his decapping process[2] which uses an oven rather than the dangerous acids, making it more approachable. It's all in German, but Google Translate does a good enough job that it's easy to follow. He's got a very interesting comparison of STM32 originals and clones, as well as various voltage references, 555 time…

Particularly for German, I highly recommend https://deepl.com it does a much better job than google translate.

They don't seem to support translating a whole page, or am I missing something? Copy/pasting is tedious.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#34

Post by magicalhippo »

jacquesm wrote: post #31
magicalhippo wrote: post #11

Richi's Lab[1] also contains a large number of pictures and analysis of decapped ICs. He's also documented his decapping process[2] which uses an oven rather than the dangerous acids, making it more approachable. It's all in German, but Google Translate does a good enough job that it's easy to follow. He's got a very interesting comparison of STM32 originals and clones, as well as various voltage references, 555 time…

Interesting implementation of an on-chip heater, that's very neat. It really is a piece of art, you'd hang in on your wall at a nice large size just to look at.

Yeah I've seriously considered doing just that, perfect geek art :)

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#36

Post by kens »

ardy42 wrote: post #30

> The MagSafe adapter and other laptop adapters use it, as well as minicomputers, LEDdrivers, audio power supplies, video games and televisions.[4] The word minicomputers is a dead link to https://web.archive.org/web/20170118103738/http://bitsavers.... , which is some reference documentation for the HP 1000 A600 computer.

Thanks, I've fixed the link.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#37

Post by jacquesm »

magicalhippo wrote: post #34
jacquesm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting implementation of an on-chip heater, that's very neat. It really is a piece of art, you'd hang in on your wall at a nice large size just to look at.

Yeah I've seriously considered doing just that, perfect geek art :)

I'm pretty sure there is a niche market for high res prints of historically relevant dies. 4004, i386, 1st pentium, 6502, 6810, 6809, 68000, 741, the ones listed above, 29000, assorted RAM chips, the synth engine from a DX11 and so on. I'd probably buy a couple printed with high quality ink on canvas.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#38

Post by squarefoot »

kens wrote: post #3

Any other suggestions for common yet generally unknown chips?

Maxim's MAX038 (no relation with the 8038), a single chip analog multi waveform generator that goes from 0.1Hz to 20 MHz. Maxim discontinued it in the early 2000s but never replaced it.

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/analog/clock-gen...

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#39

Post by pasabagi »

jacquesm wrote: post #37
magicalhippo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've seriously considered doing just that, perfect geek art :)

I'm pretty sure there is a niche market for high res prints of historically relevant dies. 4004, i386, 1st pentium, 6502, 6810, 6809, 68000, 741, the ones listed above, 29000, assorted RAM chips, the synth engine from a DX11 and so on. I'd probably buy a couple printed with high quality ink on canvas.

I have a 4004 print as a rug for my son. It's very pretty. Not sure if he'll like it when he hits the age to have opinions about such things, but I'll probably cadge it at that point.

Re: Reverse-engineering the TL431: the most common chip you’ve never heard of (2014)

#40

Post by garaetjjte »

davidgould wrote: post #23
option_greek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any of the zillion stm8 variants that surround us every where.

Yay for STM8. Cheap as dirt especially for how capable they are, and pretty sweet architecture for an 8 bit.

No GCC support, only 6 registers.. meh.

I think AVR is most friendliest from all 8 bit architectures.

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