Flat Packs (Forgotten PC History)

[Chuck Guzis]

On 9 Aug 2008 at 9:06, jd wrote:

> I've seen a few things with flat packs and have had a few of the 
> little critters myself. Most were from Fairchild. Some didn't have the 
> maker's logo and some weren't marked at all.
> 
> THey were typically white ceramic packages with gold lids and gold 
> leads. They are either square, rectangular or round, with 2, 4, 6, 
> 8--up to 20 leads.

Here's a nice exhibit:

http://www.vintchip.com/flatpack.html

The ones I used were ceramic, but black/gray not white.  No lids, 
gold leads.  Typical of these was the 723 JK flip-flop--probably 
because of defense spending, easier to get and cheaper than the 
plastic DIP or TO-99 package, if you could find them.

The original flatpacks, I believe, came from TI.  DIPs came later.

Cheers,
Chuck