harlanp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Peter Harlan) (09/29/89)
This is email from: iuvax!ames!hoc.key.com!jhh (John Hughes) concerning my request for RAM chip product code meanings. >I know this has been hashed over, but MacConnection seems to be unable >to answer this question about the 1Mb SIMMS I just bought. Written on >the chips is: > >JAPAN S000 >8919 BNQ >HM511000 JP12S The first line: JAPAN S000 - Indicates country of final manufacture. Note, even if the code said USA, the die (the chunk of silicon) could and would probably be made in Japan in the case of DRAMs. I don't know what the S000 means. The second line: 8919 BNQ - means that the device was made in the 19th week of 1989 and was part of 'lot' BNQ. (Just meaningless vendor data, but useful if there is a part defect that can be identified by date code (i.e. 8919 BNQ). This is as close as there is to a serial number for integrated circuits. The third line: HM511000 JP12S - This is the key line. The HM prefix indicates that the part is manufactured by Hitachi. The 511000 indicates that it is their 1M x 1 bit Fast Page mode DRAM. If it was 511001 it would be their nibble mode part and 511002 would be the static-column mode part. The trailing 'S' indicates, in this case, that it is their 2nd generation part (probably internally smaller and cheaper to manufacture). The 'JP12' indicates that it is in an plastic SOJ package (JP), and the 12 indicates 120ns maximum access time. For [a 100ns chip] it would be: HM511000 JP10S; or better yet 80nS parts would be HM511000 JP8S. Other manufacturers codes are: MB - Fujitsu TC or TM - Toshiba M5M - Mitsubishi uPD - NEC TMS - Texas Instruments AAA - NMB KM - Samsung MSM - Oki MCM - Motorola MT - Micron HYB - Siemens V - Vitelic HY - Hyundai (Note: all the above data extracted from the Toshiba 1989 and Hitachi 1988 data books.) Thanks John! Pete Harlan, Indiana University harlanp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu