Looking for microchip guts

[mudoggy]

I'm looking for chips/microchips to use in some art projects and fun stuff. Dead, alive, surplus, rejects, etc. Not whole processors or completed chips per se, but rather the guts inside (what comes from the wafers themselves, preferably). The brain.

Anyone know of someone with some, or of a supplier/manufacturer? Old and outmoded is fine, which is probably all I can afford anyway.

Here's detail on what I really need:

It's not necessarily a processor or complete chip I want, I actually want the part that has the actual circuits/traces on it. For instance, I have a whole pile of old pentium chips. If I break one apart, I can see the actual working part of the chip itself (the 'die'?). That's what I want, not all of the other ceramic/plastic/pcb material/etc.

Are their places where you can buy old, surplus or rejected chips? Heck, I'd even take reject wafers if they aren't cut up yet, but I'd prefer something that's already cut. It can be old, new, etc.

Any thoughts? Buying old processors and busting them apart is a very slow (and sometimes expensive) way to get these things. Plus I seemingly have to compete with the "gold scrap" crowd when all I want is the silicon portion.

They don't have to be pc related, they just have to look 'technical'. It's the look, not the function, that I'm going for.

Any size works, but the bigger, the better. Teeny tiny state of the art are tought to work with, but I'll take whatever I can find.

Also, I'm not interested in buying a sound or video card here and there, or a processor or two. Thank you for offering, though! I need to find a more consistent source, especially if I don't have to rip things apart to get to the goodies!

Thanks!

MuDoggy
(rodgerkanis@no-spam hotmail.com take out the no-spam portion to email, or PM me through Techimo.com)

(I reposted this in the General forum since I don't think the deal requests area gets much traffic, and it's not really a true 'deal' I'm searching for anyway.)

[Bovon]

http://www.bgmicro.com/
Home page

http://www.bgmicro.com/catalog.asp
Catalog

http://www.bgmicro.com/pdf/page7.pdf
Specific page showing some chips

[mudoggy]

Thanks, Bovon, close, but not quite! Although there is a lot of fun stuff to play with there. Unless there is something on that page that is listed as a part number but not a picture that would be of use. I'm not an elec/comp engineer, so while I know what a lot of it is, the rest is greek to me.

What I seek is actually what is INSIDE the modules, the actual core/brains/chip/die, rather than the whole piece itself.

I'll have to smash apart some old bios chips and memory chips and see what's inside. I'd hate to have to smash everything to get what I need, as it often crunches the part I actually want as well! (Sledgehammer diplomacy.)

Any others?

[Bovon]

I'll have to smash apart some old bios chips and memory chips and see what's inside.

Exactly why I pointed you to some cheap chips to experiment with. If you need specific chip data, you may need to contact some electronical engineer that is involved with exactly what you are looking for. Specifics are hard to come by in the realm that you are looking into.

I do wish you luck.

[originel]

some IC manufacturers give away free samples like TI and maxim. they won't have the pure silicon, but you can get free chips to take apart. the msp430 is a good microcontroller from TI you can get free samples of.

[mudoggy]

Anyone else?

Tearing chips apart is last resort, as it's fairly labor intensive, and I end up destroying some of the innards by accident.

Thanks!

[mudoggy]

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?