A Pentium III Autopsy Using an Electron Microscope
A 250 nm Pentium III processor may not be the most interesting piece of hardware anymore, at least if you depend on running such an antique in your computer.
However, if you have access to an electron microscope, even this old CPU can provide stunning imagery.
A science teacher examined the core of a Pentium III CPU. He removed the package via a power saw and used a scalpel to open the actual CPU cover. The interesting part begins with images that were taken using an optical microscope, enabling him to peek through the holes of the cover to see the connecting points between the CPU and the circuit board. The optical microscope took him close enough to see the different layers of the chip.
He transitioned to an electron microscope and drilled down to a level that we typically only get to see in pictures that are provided by the manufacturer itself. The examination ended at a resolution that allowed him to spot structures as small as 2000 nm, which is not close enough to actually see the transistors, but provides stunning detail of the CPU, even at a 10,000 nm level. Head over to SciencyStuff to see more pictures.
Even if we deal with CPUs on a daily basis (and the Pentium III is more than 11 years old), this is something we don't see too often.


Cool story. I've been looking for one of those for 2 years by now to stuff into my old PC instead of a Celeron... just for the hell of it. Can't get them in the store, no one has one to give away and don't want to deal with ebay. Out of luck, I guess.
So you'd pay an insane premium at a store for Pentium III, but not deal with eBay?
LMFAO
we have them also
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Of course not. Some stores can be reasonable on old tech.
I'm pretty sure you can't. There is a limit with optical microscopes, one being that normal light's own wavelength is much wider than that.
Intel had to deal with this when it was trying to shrink CPUs even smaller. They were wanting to etch smaller than typical visible light wavelengths. So they moved to UV, extreme UV... which have smaller wavelengths and thus a better resolution, all to get it smaller and smaller.
I only asked because I work in optical probes, which typically have worse optics than that of a scientific microscope, and we have meaningful resolution down to a micron. Electron microscopes can view structures more on the order of pm, right?
I remember having to uninstall my Moms Wordperfect and Print Shop so I could fit my MechWarrior 2 game on it (took 110mb). That really used to tick her off, lol.
Really is interesting to see part of the evolution like this, they should call me if they want to see inside a 486 chip.
It would be nice if the photos were better though.
I'd actually like to see Tom's do a piece on the manufacturing processes involved with producing chips like this in detail. It is really fascinating stuff.
I still have an Athlon XP 2200+ (1.8 GHz, socket A) bought in 2003 or so, but with no motherboard to use it on.