CPU collector peels the lid off a Soviet-era ‘fish can’ chip to peer inside with multiple microscopes — K565RU3 was a Cold War-era clone of Western chips that powered Apple II, Commodore PET, and original IBM PC

A CPU collector known as CPU Duke recently examined a Soviet-era ‘fish can’ chip called the K565PY3, a Cold War-era clone of Western chips used in devices like the Apple II and Commodore PET. The chip, a 16KB Dynamic RAM from a Moldovan factory, was reverse-engineered from the Intel 4116 DRAM chip. CPU Duke meticulously analyzed the chip's structures and memory cells using multiple microscopes, revealing details like a 128 x 128 matrix of storage cells and Cyrillic etchings indicating fast DRAM functionality. The K565PY3, likely a clone of a Western machine, sheds light on the Soviet Union's use of IC clones in home computers and industrial electronics during that era.