# Is this Nice? 1973 Military Board



## vango57 (Mar 14, 2011)

When I was a kid in the late 60's my neighbor was an electronics hobbyist and we would buy high grade precision components at a surplus place. Anyway, I thought I would give my old neighbor a call, he's only 94 now and he gave me a pickup load of old components so I will post them as I get time for comments. This board is dated 1973 as a core array. I scratched a corner heavily and it was still gold and when you run your fingernails across the circuit paths you can really feel how thick these are. Give me some time as I have a lot of work to do but I really feel I hit paydirt here.

I really need to put some time on picture taking.


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## rusty (Mar 14, 2011)

Be sure to crack or mill those chips from them old boards you lucky dawg.


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## patnor1011 (Mar 14, 2011)

vango57 said:


> When I was a kid in the late 60's my neighbor was an electronics hobbyist and we would buy high grade precision components at a surplus place. Anyway, I thought I would give my old neighbor a call, he's only 94 now and he gave me a pickup load of old components so I will post them as I get time for comments. This board is dated 1973 as a core array. I scratched a corner heavily and it was still gold and when you run your fingernails across the circuit paths you can really feel how thick these are. Give me some time as I have a lot of work to do but I really feel I hit paydirt here.
> 
> I really need to put some time on picture taking.



They are thick because they are more likely copper. (they may be plated with gold who knows? - scrape small bit and test with stannous)
Board look nice check black IC as Rusty said.


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## Anonymous (Mar 14, 2011)

First and foremost,I want to see what connected to that big square on top!
Secondly the traces are gold plated copper,just like fingers on the edge of most cards.......however.....the thickness of the plating will certainly be higher.On some of my old stuff,you can cut a trace with a razor and peel the trace off with no problem.Certainly not a way that you want to process them,but still neat to do nonetheless.
Congrats on the haul vango!If you plan on selling any,please let me know,I'd love to see if there are any collectable chips first,or maybe purchase some of it from you.


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 14, 2011)

In 1973, gold was what? - $100? In 1972, gold moved off it's $42 perch and climbed a bit. When it started to go up, plating equipment mfgrs. and electronic mfgrs. started developing equipment and techniques that would cut the costs - spot plating, zone plating, new masking techniques, etc., by reducing the total amount of gold needed. Starting then, the idea was thin (or, none) gold for non-critical areas and the normal amount for critical areas. By normal, I mean the amount of gold needed to protect those areas like contact areas, solder areas, etc. In 2011, the same amount is needed for fingers that was used in 1965. I know, because I was there. Gold plating solution have changed little in 46 years. The same old work-horse plating baths are basically the norm today.

I think that, for these reasons, with your 1973 board, the gold is probably the same thickness (say, 25-30 micro") on all parts of the board. It was a little too early to worry about the price of gold and go to the expense of selective masking in order to produce 2 different thicknesses of gold.


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## AuMINIMayhem (Mar 14, 2011)

:idea: it *might* be worth more in the "vintage electronics / collectors' market" than what you might get out of it in gold.. I'd take a little time and research it a bit, see if it has any historical siginificance, etc. (ie: was it a NASA board from an old spacecraft, etc.).. the vintage chip and board market has been climbing a bit lately, because most of the remaining ones out there are being processed for their gold content.. makes 'em more valuable when there's less of them out in the market.. 8)


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## AuMINIMayhem (Mar 14, 2011)

There's some things that may make it valuable as a collectors' piece now that I'm looking at the picture in full screen. There's a date, a part number, and a "rev b" (revision b) designation... this is a very cool board.. I hope you haven't done too much to it yet.. I'm gonna look up some stuff quick. I'll see if I can't find some more info for you on that. 8)


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## AuMINIMayhem (Mar 14, 2011)

quick google search = found the same board listed on Fleabay.. 

..yours was manufactured on 16th of July 1973

the one on Feebay was manufactured on 24 of August 1978..

They've got it listed for about a Hundred bucks.. I'd watch the listing and see if someone buys it.. might give you an idea if it's worth anything as a collectors' piece..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Magnetic-core-memory-digital-circuit-board-/300534700323


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## stihl88 (Mar 14, 2011)

These are the old RAM sticks, same as what runs your PC now only a little larger...


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## rusty (Mar 14, 2011)

stihl88 said:


> These are the old RAM sticks, same as what runs your PC now only a little larger...



The telcomm boards I did were populated with those small RAM chips and each one had gold inside. Worth checking out, I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Regards
Rusty


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## AuMINIMayhem (Mar 18, 2011)

the labels on the back with the handwriting lead me to believe it was an "engineering" board, meaning it was probably not the final revision on that board... I'm still holding on to the opinion that it may be worth more as a collectors' piece than it's weight in gold. 8)


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## macfixer01 (Mar 19, 2011)

It's Core Memory made up of thousands of tiny ferrite beads arranged in a grid, each bead having three tiny wires passing though it, and all hand made. Man talk about labor intensive! Core was the only random access memory available for computers before semiconductor memory was developed and quickly took over due to higher capacity and speed, lower cost and power consumption, and smaller physical size. Would sure look nice cleaned up in a frame though, as a bit of history.

macfixer01


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## Harold_V (Mar 20, 2011)

macfixer01 said:


> It's Core Memory made up of thousands of tiny ferrite beads arranged in a grid, each bead having three tiny wires passing though it, and all hand made.


I looked at that picture last night, trying to determine if that was ferrite core memory, or not. I couldn't make it out well enough to make a decision. 

I was hired by Sperry Utah Engineering Laboratories, right out of high school, as a trainee machinist. They were engaged in R&D on the Sergeant Guided Missile, and later in full production. The missile used a series of boards that were stacked in a fairly large cube---all ferrite core, for memory. I haven't seen a board like that in years. 

Harold


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## vango57 (Mar 26, 2011)

I apologize for not getting some better pictures up. I had found it was the original RAM too. The beaded area was covered with a metal screen and I will try and post a picture soon. I believe I have 2 or 3 of these boards. I just haven't had the time to seperate all I got from my old neighbor yet. Heck, we had 77 degree one day and snow the next so just waiting for the weather to be constant too is my excuse. This forum is great for posting such items and glad I found the site, and yet on Christmas.


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## macfixer01 (Mar 26, 2011)

I bought a core memory board on Ebay once that had a square of gold plating on the board beneath the cores and another empty gold-plated board sandwiched on top, apparently for shielding? Unfortunately the glint of gold overcame my willingness to save the board intact as a piece of computing history.

macfixer01


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