Transistors

Somewhere I saw an article by Bob Pease (or maybe by someone else at National Semiconductor?) in which he mentions that IC designers at National could go into the lab and find transistors similar to the ones used in National's bipolar process for analog ICs.  These TO-5 packaged "kit-parts" could then be used to prototype a new IC design on the bench.  Here is an example of one of those prototypes:

I've never seen those kind of 8 pin round sockets before, they almost look like miniature tube sockets.

picture source (LM168 voltage reference prototype): https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article/21808434/whats-all-this-pease-prototype-stuff-anyhow

Unfortunately I am unable to find that article (although I did spend a pleasant afternoon looking on the internet at old Pease articles.

The reason for this quest ?  It was this announcement made on the IEEE Spectrum page of the MOSbius Project:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/mosbius-learning-analog-system-design 

The MOSbius Project uses a custom MOS chip with various MOS transistor configurations bonded out to pins on the 68 PLCC package.  In addition there is a cross connect matrix which can be programmed to "wire up" the transistors into a circuit, more of an explanation here on the MOSbius Project page:

https://mosbius.org/0_front_matter/intro.html 

This MOSbius Project is kind of a 21st century approach to prototyping analog circuits sorta like those old National Semi kit-parts.  But this time with MOS transistors instead of bipolar and the programmable interconnect / solderless breadboard rather than the copper clad.  However they are only going to sell 150 of the MOSbius Projects (at $150) to educators.  So I am sure I'd never see one :( 

BTW check this next link for a comprehensive collection of Pease pdf files: (On the left side of the page select: "Vecchie riviste"  and then search for Pease to find ten pdf files of Pease articles)

http://www.introni.it/ 

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm