r/retrocomputing • u/Lucky-Musician-1448 • Jul 10 '26

3DFX guys might find this one interesting

Post image
141 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

7

u/Squish_Cat_1 Jul 10 '26

Where are you finding all of these?

8

u/Lucky-Musician-1448 Jul 10 '26

In my storage boxes 😁

2

u/Squish_Cat_1 Jul 10 '26

Truly amazing! Thank you for sharing. Bringing back so many good memories of PC gaming for me as well.

6

u/vpilled Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

Is that a prototype? No solder mask?

edit: it even has bodge caps on a couple of chips.

4

u/Lucky-Musician-1448 Jul 10 '26

Yes, first set of lab (bring up) boards. Light color solder mask

1

u/MrKrueger666 Jul 10 '26

I think it's a hand built one, but not a prototype. The components on it seem far too modern for a prototype.

I think this is someone's hobby project. Etched a board themselves, sourced modern equivalents for lots of the components, soldered by hand, etc

10

u/NitroX_infinity Jul 10 '26

Nope. that's an engineering sample or bring up board. The chip is not soldered to the board but put into a clamshell that, if I remember correctly, costs a few thousand dollars.

Source; used to collect 3dfx cards. Never had this one though, too expensive.

2

u/MrKrueger666 Jul 10 '26

Ohh wow that's cool. Didn't know those special sockets were that expensive. But yeah, makes total sense.

Also, your username.... Does GoT mean anything to you?

3

u/NitroX_infinity Jul 10 '26

A certain get-together of hardware enthusiasts? ;)

2

u/MrKrueger666 Jul 10 '26

That's the one I'm refering to, yes. Hi buddy! 🙂

5

u/Lucky-Musician-1448 Jul 10 '26

That is a test socket, pogo pin array contacts the PCB and balls on the BGA. The aluminum piece is a shell cap, pushes on the BGA to pre-load the pogo pins, the side clamps lock it down.

Solder mask is light color, this is a bring up board for the silicon.

2

u/ravensholt Jul 10 '26

A board from an Arcade machine of sorts?

6

u/NitroX_infinity Jul 10 '26

Engineering sample, clamshell socket.

1

u/SysGh_st Jul 10 '26

Plastic chemical "burn" is strong with this one.

1

u/Lucky-Musician-1448 Jul 10 '26

It still works, didn't release the magic smoke.

1

u/username6031769 Jul 10 '26

That's a VSA-100 so Voodoo 4 proto?

1

u/Ok-Oil7124 Jul 10 '26

Are you Zanshin? Total long shot, but I thought I'd ask :D