Nintendo NES RP2C02 Die Shots

Thanks to Joey Parsell in Indiana for sending three NES RP2C02 chips. All three are depackaged, and we hope to be able to delayer the 8FI chip soon.



We had small a problem depackaging the 8F1 chip. Part of the plastic package over the center of the die had hardened and didn't come off after our first attempts. The hard spot was probably caused by heat from the chip when it was running. Luckily, we have a pretty good technique for fixing this and getting a clean die, though it often increases erosion of the metal traces. You can see this in our first shot below, as well as the hard plastic spot in the second image.

1600 x 1498 JPG 1.06 MB
6500 x 6086 JPG 14.2 MB
6500 x 6086 PNG 85 kb
1600 x 1498 JPG 1.06 MB
6500 x 6086 JPG 14.2 MB
6500 x 6086 PNG 85 kb
83 separate images were shot and stitched together to produce the first image. It's 9787 x 9164 pixels. The images here are reduced in resolution, and a scale bar is provided along the bottom edge.





All images were shot by Greg James in San Francisco, then transmitted to the UK where Christian Sattler corrected and stitched them together using a combination of Autopano-sift-C and custom code. The patchwork images to the right of each die shot are a map of the stitched images.

If you enjoy these images and our work, please consider a donation to further this work.  We're a small group of enthusiasts who devote our free time and money to preserve computer technology.  Your support is a valuable contribution to computer history and to preserving classic computer hardware in the public domain.