[johndmcmaster]

Some friends and I tried to buy chips from them recently. However, they wanted a relatively significant amount of money for them that more accurately reflected commercial rates than historical collectible prices. Seems like they are operating as a corporation still and may still be protective over their IP

Background: I maintain the largest die photography collection on the internet. I wanted to take some die pictures for historical reasons. Fortunately I was able to get one to image from a third party, although I haven't posted it yet

[lispm]

I would think that in the few remaining CPUs specially designed to run Lisp have a significant historical value. Just having a working original Lisp Machine is extremely rare these days - given that there were probably only 10000 ever being made and the older ones (from the early to mid 80s) are extremely fragile.

[eschaton]

They’re not that fragile.

[eschaton]

I doubt you’ll be able to buy working ICs to decap since they may be needed to bring a broken system back to life.

[asciilifeform]

I have 5 Symbolics Ivory CPUs (1 of which is in a working MacIvory III card.)

Recently I found that not far from where I live, one can rent time on an electron microscope for a very reasonable price. But the lab in question does not have the gear needed for decapping and delayering.

If someone knows of a reasonably-priced (mid five-figures or less) commercial facility that will do it with a good chance of success, I'd be interested. But I won't be sending these chips to some random person who may or may not be able to (or even make an honest attempt) to do the job, as I have only this small handful of units and currently no way to get more.