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← Philips MEL
Digital circuit blocks
Circuit Blocks were the forerunners of the modern Integrated Circuit (IC),
developed around 1960 by Philips
and manfactured by Philips (Netherlands),
Mullard (UK)
and Valvo (Germany). The small modules are brightly coloured and
have a number that indicates its function. In fact, each module contains
a small printed circuit board (PCB) with conventional passive and active
components.
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Various series of Circuit Blocks appeared over the years, such as the
10-Series, 20-Series,
40-Series, Norbits 60-Series and the Input/Output Devices.
The image on the right shows some examples of the Philips Series-1
(also known as 1-Series) that were introduced around 1960 [1].
Circuit Block were heavily used in professional and military equipment
from 1960 to the early 1970s, but were eventually superceeded by the
Transistor-Transistor-Logic (TTL) ICs that were introduced in 1967 and
that were soon widely available. ICs eventually took over the market.
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Similar devices, known as
FLYBALL modules,
were developed around the same time in the US.
They were used in several high-level
cipher machines of the era. Like the Philips ones, they
were eventually replaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s by modern TTL ICs.
In the former DDR (East Germany), similar building blocks were made by
Keramischen Werke Hermsdorf (KME) [4].
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Examples of a Series-1, 10-Series and 20-Series module
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Developed around 1960 and thought to be the first all-transistor encapsulated
circuits [1]. Consisting of a brightly coloured plastic enclosure with a small
PCB, covered in epoxy.
Each module had 10 wires, which extend from the module
on one of the longe edges. The internal circuit is built around unbranded
OC47 transistors — a general purpose PNP germanium transistor, made by Philips
for OEM purposes — and is specified for a speed of 100 kHz.
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These series were developed around 1969 and have the same physical dimensions
as the 1-Series, albeit with two rows of contacts, arranged in a zig-zag
pattern, totalling to 19 wires.
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These modules were housed in a plastic enclosure (available in several
colours) with bended contacts extending from both long edges, in the same
way as the later Dual-In-Line (DIL) packages, but larger. One side had
8 contacts, whilst the other had 9 [1].
Not much information about the NORBITs is available, but there seems to
have been a NORBIT 2 and NORBIT S variant.
Furthermore, NORBIT was available in a 60-Series, 61-Series and probably
a 90-Series.
➤ Wikipedia
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- Components and Materials, Part 1
Philips Elcoma, September 1970.
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-
Thanks to Jörgen Drobick for bringing this to our attention.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Tuesday 28 November 2017. Last changed: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 - 08:07 CET.
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![Example from a Philips publication of 1967 [2]](img/models.png)