In response to a note in the Feb. 13, 1984 edition
of the Bell Labs News, I phoned Marcy Goldstein concerning a sample
of old micro-circuits. This is an expansion of the conversation:
When I joined
Western Electric (now AT&T Technologies, Inc.) in 1977, I
was assigned an older desk which had been shipped to the Indian
Hill location (Naperville, IL) from a New Jersey location. In
the desk, I found these electronic devices. An office partner
recognized them as digital integrated circuits from the processor
of the SAGE (StrAtegic Ground Environment) system, which was used
to control the country's first anti-aircraft defense, guided missile
system.
The circuit
packages bear the Western Electric trademark, identification numbers
of GF40139, GF40140, GF40142, GF40164, and what appear to be dates
from various weeks and quarters of 1968 and 1969.
We filed the
lid off of one of them, and found half a dozen transistor and
diode chips, attatched [sic] to metal pads, which were bonded
to a ceramic substrate. The interconnections had been done by
hand, with gold wire. The package might be described as a hand-wired
hybrid integrated circuit. They are enclosed with this letter;
I hope they help with the exhibit!
NMAH
Catalog Number 1984.0321.01