Furrtek decapped the PC Engine platform’s (PCE/TurboGrafx-16/CoreGrafx/SuperGrafx/Duo/etc) video generator chip, the HuC6270, back in November, and then sent it to John McMaster for photographing and imaging. John just published an extremely high resolution map of the chip that can be used for reverse engineering. Decapping is the process of removing the casing of an integrated circuit, usually via laser or acid, and then photographing its internal layout using a microscope. The information can then be translated into hardware description language (HDL), which is the blueprint used to fabricate replacement parts, and the exact same code used for FPGA devices like MiSTer. HDL is the key to permanent hardware preservation.

A complete, decapped HuC6270 translated into HDL will be a major advancement to FPGA-based emulation of PC Engine hardware. Furrtek’s previous work decapping the Neo Geo MVS/AES is now one of the the crown jewels of the MiSTer platform. Furrtek decapped the 6270 and sent the die to John McMaster who photographed and stitched together the image, creating a single ultra-high resolution image that must be seen to be believed. Keep in mind that this photo of the inner die measures ~7mm² yet the final compressed JPG is 171MB.

Furrtek also decapped the HuC6260, the PC Engine platform’s RGB DAC. Its release will follow, and will be another huge milestone.

1/12 resolution downscale of the ~7mm² die image

HuC6270 Interactive Decap Map: https://siliconpr0n.org/map/hudson/huc6270/mz_mit20x/

Full 171MB image: https://siliconpr0n.org/map/hudson/huc6270/single/hudson_huc6270_mz_mit20x.jpg