I doubt they're legit ST parts, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are new... or new-ish. I've got some "ST" M27C256B parts from China, which have the same pink colored text, which I've never seen on any real ST parts. But what I've noticed on a lot of the Chinese parts is that the dies are small compared to most vintage parts, which leads me to believe that they're not simply relabeled used pulls from the 80s. Maybe they're defective dies that have have enough good addresses to put in a smaller EPROM... though I would have expected differences from chip to chip in that case. Every time I've bought any, all chips of the same type look identical.
Interestingly, the die and bond wires of the "ST" 2716s pictured above do look like an actual vintage ST M2716 1F1... so maybe they're unsold "last buy" stock that was supposed to be destroyed, or couldn't be resold as marked, or something weird like that. That would explain the newer look (my legit M2716 is from late 1991, which I'd expect would be near the end of the 2716 lifetime). It's very obvious that they were remarked though.
I haven't personally had any issues with these Chinese EPROMs. I've had some that have tops that look like they were painted black, some that look like they were sanded smooth then remarked, etc... but functionally, they've been fine.
Attached is a pic of a few EPROMs from my stash for comparison of die, logo/text, etc. They're all legit vintage chips, except the fake pink text Chinese "ST" M27C256B in the middle.
DogP
Interestingly, the die and bond wires of the "ST" 2716s pictured above do look like an actual vintage ST M2716 1F1... so maybe they're unsold "last buy" stock that was supposed to be destroyed, or couldn't be resold as marked, or something weird like that. That would explain the newer look (my legit M2716 is from late 1991, which I'd expect would be near the end of the 2716 lifetime). It's very obvious that they were remarked though.
I haven't personally had any issues with these Chinese EPROMs. I've had some that have tops that look like they were painted black, some that look like they were sanded smooth then remarked, etc... but functionally, they've been fine.
Attached is a pic of a few EPROMs from my stash for comparison of die, logo/text, etc. They're all legit vintage chips, except the fake pink text Chinese "ST" M27C256B in the middle.
DogP
Attachments
Last edited:
