[Coco] 6809 wafer on eBay

[Arthur Flexser]

As one who is not at all knowledgeable about the manufacture of CPU chips,
could somebody please enlighten me as to what exactly this 4"/100 wafer
thing is?  It's 4 inches in diameter and contains the makings of 100
6809s?   Is each of the little squares something that gets mounted in the
center of the actual 6809 chip in such a way as to make contact with its 40
pins?  Why would the shape be a disc with many of the squares cut off in
the middle, rather than rectangular?

Also, the lengthy and interesting essay about the 6809 at the end,
seemingly written by a design team insider, makes note of the HCF ("halt
and catch fire") test instruction in the 6809.  Does this have a known
opcode, and what does it do?

Art


On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Mike Pepe <lamune at doki-doki.net> wrote:

> This is a pretty amazing thing to see:
>
>
>
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-MC6809-CPU-4100-SILICON-WAFER-COLLECTOR-ITE
> M-VINTAGE-SUPER-RARE-DISC-/130972238375
>
>
>
> Certainly I wouldn't mind having that in my collection were it not so
> costly
>
>
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