<![CDATA[Hi!]]>Hi! A little bit late in the day, but is still happening today.

And today's exhibit is TC8568AM by Toshiba. This is a VFO to be used in floppy disk controllers. This is made very prominent on the die itself. Interesting how such a discrete part was still made in early 90s, where I kind of expected them to be replaced by fully integrated parts. A really short thread will follow.

Full-res map: http://infosecdj.net/map/toshiba/tc8568am/infosecdj_mz_nikpa40x_66p/

Many thanks to @RueNahcMohr for supplying this sample!

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/d04031ec-5175-426b-8977-589b8da02e1b/hiRSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 00:22:23 GMTFri, 17 Apr 2026 19:09:47 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Hi! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:22:38 GMT]]>The standard cell library used elsewhere on the die looks rather unusual; both poly and diffusion features make large excursions outside power distribution rails.

At the top of the snippet is what looks like an autorouter bug.

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421673527752111https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421673527752111Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:22:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Hi! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:19:17 GMT]]>At the bottom of the die are several pieces of special CMOS circuitry, I suspect this is where the VCO lives. Several prominent capacitor structures can be seen, formed between the poly layer and the substrate.

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421660318033163https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421660318033163Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:19:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Hi! on Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:16:04 GMT]]>In the bottom left corner we have what looks like a die ID (D930 0001A) along with e-test features. These are two transistors with a common gate wire, which apparently has an ESD protection diode as well.

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421647713789972https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/infosecdj/statuses/116421647713789972Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:16:04 GMT