Forgotten PC History

[Chuck Guzis]

On 8 Aug 2008 at 21:58, Roy J. Tellason wrote:

> There were also those "flatpacks" which I never could figure out.  A precursor 
> to surface mount?  Something else?

My first exposure to ICs was largely TO-99 style "cans", followed by 
flatpacks.  The flatpack stuff that I had was mostly RTL.  I didn't 
see many DIPs until TTL.  I mounted the flatpacks as surface-mount 
and did a similar thing with the TO packages, just bending the leads 
in an L-shape and soldering them down to the PCB pads.

That's the way I did my first IC boards--single-sided PCB, laid out 
with tape and etched.  Hooked the pads together with No. 26 magnet 
wire.  

I didn't know any better, but it worked.

Cheers,
Chuck