Inside an #Intel Celeron G540 CPU

One of the reasons that I don't open up many new and current CPUs & GPUs (besides price) is the amount of skill needed to do so. Removing the silicon chip in one piece is one challenge, and then sanding down the top so that you can see the more interesting layers is the other.

Fritzchens Fritz uses epoxy resin around the chip to spread out the area being sanded to help distribute the sanding force and reduce what happened to this chip. I imagine that using ultra-fine sandpapers would also be a big help, another thing I didn't previously have.

I'd like to eventually spend more time perfecting this technique, because it would be a nice skill to have. In the meantime, I would recommend checking out Fritzchens Fritz's work.

Fritzchens Fritz's YouTube:

Fritzchens Fritz's Flicker Page:
AMD Zen 4
Intel Raptor Lake

[zacharyreid]

“it can be quite a bit of work to get into”
fuckin *SNAP*

[harryniedecken]

Inexpensive, low tech part, only 200x more dense than we used to make in the 80s. 😂 We just never imagined this would be possible.

[beezlebub]

Loving your videos man, I knew this stuff was intricate, but it’s downright mind blowing sometimes

[AfternoonProductions]

Dude i cant get enough of your videos. I would LOVE to see if theres any secrets in the Intel Xeon X5698. One of the rarest processors intel ever made, they are hard to find cheap...

[startedtech]

I think looking into how extreme overclockers do die-lapping on CPUs to maximize heat transfer could be helpful for evenly removing material.

[EugeneSmedlund]

I love the colors man. You should make wall art blown up pictures. I'd buy them

[jake]

take a Q9650 and try to delid it, since its soldered and not the soft new kind, you will crack the die on removal. i have a perfect cracked in half die that shows EVERYTHING

[Ludicrous_Speedway]

Not to be that guy, but I think you might have a better silicon recovery rate if you sand in a figure eight pattern. Wet Sanding would be best too, but I don’t know what liquid to recommend for this application. Considering the small amount of material removal in general polishing techniques would be your best bet. Either way, I find your videos awesome.

[Bob]

When I worked in metal finishing (electroplating) in the 90’s, one method used to measure the deposited thickness was “cross sectioning” a part. The part was cast into resin. When set, the part was either cut then sanded down or just sanded down to get a bias view and examined with a comparator. You might try a variation of this.
One benefit is that the resin makes the outer edge giving more leeway to polish the dart down. 😊

[somebodythatiusedtoknoooooooow]

I guess your goal is to see each layer one at the time and then continue to grind to the next, but the corner with the colorful layers is so beautiful! Celeron silicon art!

[bentboybbz]

Put it son something square, then put four dots of epoxy or glue, then start sanding trying to keep it flat before you touch the die, it helped me out, by the time I got to the part i had it fairly flat and upon contact i got it even closer. Use minimal pressure, it will help keep it from looking ragged because you are tearing pieces off, and too fine of sandpaper causes dust ro build back up in the grooves on the part making it ugly. You will figure it out i have faith my brother!

[CasualTS]

Reminds me a long time ago someone gave me a 486 embedded in clear resin as a keychain. It was pretty neat to look at and the structures were big enough at the time you didn't need a microscope to see the pretty shimmering colors 😀

[NicolasRiera-qw]

You should get a Scanning electron microscope.

[WantBadtime]

Looks like the holographic pattern stickers intel used to make.

[joshstucki]

Those were perfectly capable Windows 7 office PC CPUs.

[hullinstruments]

Need to get you a cheap lapidary setup dude. Dirt cheap diamond laps, a slow/variable speed wet lapping setup could be put together in a few hours with not much money at all. Going to open up a whole new world for you when doing cross-sections and examining parts

[alosreal]

Ah yes, human made chips beyond my comprehension

[yunp]

If you want to apply even pressure you should is a block of wood or plastic and attach it to that, so you dont have to press on it but it will be lightly pressed by the weight of the block

[supersquinto]

You could try a reference plate and 1-3k grit paper if you want to sand really fine on an extremely level surface.

[AboxofMonsters]

So who made the original processors ( that must have been just as intricate ) that made these original chips ? What ran the first automated robots to make any of these ?? It must have been a computer that filled a hanger sized room