Reverse Engineering the Motorola MC14500 1-bit CPU

An exploration of the history, architecture, and silicon die shots of the Motorola MC14500 1-bit processor.

This is a special one! In this episode we tell one of the most epic stories and take a look at some truly amazing die shots of the Motorola MC14500 1-bit CPU. Some truly amazing people helped with this journey, so please, absolutely check out the links below! EDIT: Ken has hooked me up with one more little nugget of brilliance. The skip function that we look at at the end can be summarized much better by looking at the right most group of transistors as a NAND gate. Check this image: i.postimg.cc/zfyBWNRR/NAND-SKZ.jpg That's a much more elegant way to decipher that! Thank you again Ken! Zoomable die shot of the metal: siliconpr0n.org/map/motorola/mc14500/mz_mit20x/ Zoomable delayered die shot: siliconpr0n.org/map/motorola/mc14500/s1-2_mit20x/ Ken’s blog post on the MC14500: righto.com/2021/02/a-one-bit-processor-explained-reverse.htm… Hackaday: hackaday.io/ Our HackChat transcript: hackaday.io/event/175628-vacuum-tube-logic-hack-chat All HackChat transcripts: hackaday.io/event/19578-hack-chat-transcripts CuriousMarc’s channel: youtube.com/user/mverdiell Ken Shirriff’s blog: righto.com/ John McMaster’s homepage: siliconpr0n.org/ Falstad: falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html Falstad simulation of the Skip circuit: tinyurl.com/y7nb5x42 Come join us on Discord! Discord: discord.gg/p7UsfHD Twitter: twitter.com/UsagiElectric Thanks for watching!