[Coco] 6809 wafer on eBay

[Steven Hirsch]

On Thu, 22 Aug 2013, Mike Pepe wrote:

> I doubt any process engineer would learn anything new from a 30+ year old
> wafer. I also think Googorola has better things to do than go after people
> who possess such curiosities. I'm sure Intel/AMD/Nvidia would have a
> different take on that, though.

That's an understatement.  At some level it's always been a game of 
spy-vs-spy, since all chip vendors are constantly watching the 
competitor's products for signs of patent infringement.  But, no one wants 
to make it simple for the other guy!

If that wafer is really 30 years old, then all patents that applied to it 
have expired.  However, an enormous of amount of what goes into 
fabrication falls under "internal tribal knowledge", aka trade secret.

I'll be very surprised if that auction is not halted, 30 years or not.

Steve


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