EEVblog #1341 - AMAZING $250,000 IBM Processor TEARDOWN! on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2021–2022.
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Dave Jones of EEVblog tears down a 1991 IBM 9121 thermal conduction module from a System/390 mainframe, a 63-layer ceramic hybrid module with 2772 pins worth about $250,000, and demonstrates a BGA desoldering technique.
Cited in threads on chip packaging and cooling as a vivid look at vintage IBM mainframe module construction.
“Dave from EEVBlog also made a video about it”
3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
All the vintage mainframe stuff is pretty mind blowing. There is an awesome hidden gem on YouTube: CPU Galaxy. He has a huge collection of vintage CPUs. IBM 9121 Mainframe CPU [link] Dave from EEVBlog also made a video about it ▶ this video
in “IBM paperweight teardown: Reverse-engineering 1970s memory chips” · View on HN
This one does[1]. It have a bunch of pistons on springs touching each chiplet, all in mineral oil. Price bit out of range for typical desktop user tho * ▶ this video
in “One Startup’s Cooling Chip May Surge Processor Power” · View on HN
The thermal solution and packaging looks a lot like mainframe systems from the 80s (IBM, Siemens, Japanese). Siemens H100: [link] [link] IBM: ▶ this video
in “An inside look at the custom CPUs in Tesla's Dojo Supercomputer” · View on HN