Back in the days of the SPARCstation IPX (4/50), Weitek sold the
PowerUp processor. IIRC, it was often sold with a chip puller people
praised for how easily it removed the original CPU. I forget whether
Sun sold similar chip pullers.

My questions are: Did those chip pullers have 2 prongs or 4 (i.e.,
did it pry the chip up from all four sides or just two), and is there an equivalent chip puller around today? A check of Ebay and Google turned
up only 2-prong chip pullers for chips with 124 pins or less.

Thanks in advance,
-WBE

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Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> writes:

Back in the days of the SPARCstation IPX (4/50), Weitek sold the
PowerUp processor. IIRC, it was often sold with a chip puller people
praised for how easily it removed the original CPU. I forget whether
Sun sold similar chip pullers.

My questions are: Did those chip pullers have 2 prongs or 4 (i.e.,
did it pry the chip up from all four sides or just two), and is there an >equivalent chip puller around today? A check of Ebay and Google turned
up only 2-prong chip pullers for chips with 124 pins or less.

I seem to remember them being more like little rakes, rather than a
traditional chip puller used for PLCC sockets or the like.

You pried around the outside on opposite sides. The machined sockets
that they used back then would reasonably let the chips out eventually.

--
Doug McIntyre
doug@themcintyres.us

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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I originally asked:

Back in the days of the SPARCstation IPX (4/50), Weitek sold the
PowerUp processor. IIRC, it was often sold with a chip puller people >>praised for how easily it removed the original CPU. I forget whether
Sun sold similar chip pullers.

My questions are: Did those chip pullers have 2 prongs or 4 (i.e.,
did it pry the chip up from all four sides or just two), and is there an >>equivalent chip puller around today? A check of Ebay and Google turned
up only 2-prong chip pullers for chips with 124 pins or less.

to which Doug McIntyre <merlyn@dork.geeks.org> kindly replied:

I seem to remember them being more like little rakes, rather than a traditional chip puller used for PLCC sockets or the like.

You pried around the outside on opposite sides. The machined sockets
that they used back then would reasonably let the chips out eventually.

Interesting. Thanks,
-WBE

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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In article <ydh8otv895.fsf@UBEblock.psr.com>,
Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> wrote:

Back in the days of the SPARCstation IPX (4/50), Weitek sold the
PowerUp processor. IIRC, it was often sold with a chip puller people
praised for how easily it removed the original CPU. I forget whether
Sun sold similar chip pullers.

My questions are: Did those chip pullers have 2 prongs or 4 (i.e.,
did it pry the chip up from all four sides or just two), and is there an >equivalent chip puller around today? A check of Ebay and Google turned
up only 2-prong chip pullers for chips with 124 pins or less.

It pulled on two sides of the chip because it had to press down on
the circuit board on the other two sides. Also, it was a combination
puller and pusher:

<http://www.abc-cpu.com/weitek1.JPG>
<http://www.abc-cpu.com/weitek2.JPG>

The 2nd picture (weitek2.JPG) is the better one to understand how
the tool worked.

Both pictures show the tool configured cfor insertion. The wide
black sides on either side have the L shaped tips to hook under the
cpu socket. The white knob on the side loosened the black sides so
the tips could spread apart to fit around the socket, then when the
tips are under the socket, you would tighten the white knob to keep
the tips hooked under the socket. Turn the black T-handle on the top
and it will move the black square center block down to press the cpu
chip into the socket.

To extract the chip, you loosen the white knob more so the black sides
spread wider. The black center block comes out and you flip it 180
degrees and put it back in between the black walls. Now the black
center block's red "sides" are sticking down past the black sides'
L-shaped tips. Put this over the socket and now the red sides rest on
the circuit board on opposite sides of the cpu socket, and the tips of
the black sides hook under two edges of the cpu chip. Turn the black T-
handle and the center block's red sides push down on the circuit board
while the L tips on the black sides pull up on the cpu chip to extract
it from the socket.

It was a very elegant design.

^Greg

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(I asked about the chip puller that came with the Weitek PowerUp CPU.)

(gerg@panix.com (gerg) kindly replied with two links to pictures of that

exact item and a helpful description.)


Nice! Thanks for the description and the pictures!

I see it's completely different from any of the chip pullers I turned up
via searching for this item on Ebay and Google. [They didn't claim to
have found the Weitek one, but they listed lots of other chip pullers
that look and work nothing like this one. :-/ ]

Thanks!
-WBE

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> writes:

(I asked about the chip puller that came with the Weitek PowerUp CPU.)

(gerg@panix.com (gerg) kindly replied with two links to pictures of that

exact item and a helpful description.)

Nice! Thanks for the description and the pictures!

I see it's completely different from any of the chip pullers I turned up
via searching for this item on Ebay and Google. [They didn't claim to
have found the Weitek one, but they listed lots of other chip pullers
that look and work nothing like this one. :-/ ]

I find it odd to be so different than my past experience too.
I wonder if they had multiple varients over the years. I know we
did a couple of the Weitek upgrades, but we never had anything like this.



--
Doug McIntyre
doug@themcintyres.us

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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In article <m_KdnRrySq6wAFbHnZ2dnUU7-VGdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
Doug McIntyre <merlyn@dork.geeks.org> wrote:

Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid> writes:

(I asked about the chip puller that came with the Weitek PowerUp CPU.)

(gerg@panix.com (gerg) kindly replied with two links to pictures of that

exact item and a helpful description.)

Nice! Thanks for the description and the pictures!

I see it's completely different from any of the chip pullers I turned up >>via searching for this item on Ebay and Google. [They didn't claim to
have found the Weitek one, but they listed lots of other chip pullers
that look and work nothing like this one. :-/ ]

I find it odd to be so different than my past experience too.
I wonder if they had multiple varients over the years. I know we
did a couple of the Weitek upgrades, but we never had anything like this.

The company I worked for bought 4 or 5 of the kits over the course
of a year and a half. The first 3 kits had the elaborate puller
that I posted about previously, but the last one or two had the
kind that look like a pair of tweezers spread very wide. I threw
it away and re-used the ones from the first kits.

I suspect Weitek didn't make as much profit as they hoped on the
upgrades, and couldn't afford to make the good extractors after
the initial stock ran out.

-Greg
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