Earliest/Latest chip dates you've seen \ VOGONS

Earliest/Latest chip dates you've seen

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First post, by RichB93

Posted on 2026-07-22, 20:04

RichB93 Offline

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Got a Roland MT-120 recently and was surprised to see that the synth chip (as used in the SC-55 mkII) was dated the April 1998; I didn't realise that Roland even sold the MT-120 that long - the firmware was still v1.02 from 1994!

Anyhow, just wondering what the earliest and latest chip dates are that people have seen in devices?

Reply 1 of 1, by MikeSG

Posted on 2026-07-23, 08:58

MikeSG Offline

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Joined: 2023-02-14, 08:31

A lot of chips were produced for industrial equipment into the late 2010's, and possibly still going today. It's more expensive to replace manufacturing equipment with entirely new systems than only replacing singular chips.

The Chips & Tech F65545 is a low external component video card chip (for ISA, SBC, portable monitors) that was one of the first to display a good LCD image. Common date codes are 98-2001. Up to 2015.

Chips & Tech F82C836 B-25 (386sx chipset) has dates codes from 1991 to 2004.

I highly recommend getting the latest date codes if you're overclocking. The equipment used to produce the chips can be decades old and are bought/sold/maintained specifically to keep old industrial chip lines going and they maintain a precision/quality level that is intended to cover a wide variety of chips. So old chips can get a boost in quality. Though I'd be surprised if any 1990's chips are still being made.

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