In another thread, Bob Ammerman wrote:
> I bought some 2102's 1k x 1 static there (packaged one-each in Radio
> Shack blister packs!) ...

I've still a fondness for 2102's.

Because it was my first big mistake in prototyping.

Yesterday, while checking my cache of chips for 2114's, my first 2102
stared back at me from the pile.  Originally a blister pack purchase
from Radio Shack; and I had no clue what to do with it.

I was a child, maybe about 14.  The 70's.  I had no breadboard.  All I
could do was paper design and soldering.

I rigged up ten toggle switches to the address lines, five rows and
five columns, alongside a ten by ten marked grid on an aluminium
plate.  An hour of careful drilling.

Another toggle switch for read/write.

Another toggle switch for data in.

Data out went to an LED driver.

A push button for chip enable.

The idea was a hide and seek game; battleships.  Program the array by
hand, using only 100 of the available bit cells.

The mistake was not knowing that static RAM cells don't have a power
up reset.  The game was impractical; every power cycle would require
several minutes of human activity to clear each of the 100 cells.

Even now, the datasheets fail to mention that static RAM doesn't do
what I wanted.  ;-)  So much presumed knowledge.

Nowadays, I'd use a micro.

--=20
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/
--=20
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