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 p

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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 p

The K565RU3 is a 16KB DRAM IC that was cloned from Western chips found in classic machines like the Apple II, Commodore PET, and original IBM PC.

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(Image credit: CPU Duke ) A fascinating Soviet-era retro electronics artifact was dissected and micrographed by CPU collector CPU Duke this weekend. Under the enthusiast’s selection of microscopes this time was the ‘K565PY3.’ The IC under scrutiny was a Dynamic RAM chip with a 16KB capacity, and this particular sample was believed to have come from the Mezon factory in what is now Moldova. For context, we think the K565PY3 is a reverse-engineered clone of the 1970s/80s era Intel- designed 4116 DRAM chip.

#WeekendDieShots!Thanks to @RetroNora7734 for sending over some Russian ICs. Today, I started with the 16K × 1-bit Dynamic RAM made in Moldova probably at “Mezon” factory.A 🧵…The lid was really solid… had to open it like a fish can… pic.twitter.com/gmhUx1CHmF November 2, 2025

The first thing CPU Duke noticed about the K565PY3 was its sturdy “fish can” construction. However, it didn’t take long to pop that off and begin the in-depth silicon survey, starting with a stereo microscope in light reflection mode. Immediately clear are the chip’s structures and multitude of memory cells (of course).

CPU Duke dove deeper, with their ring light making it possible to peer into structures below the surface layer. Did they count them all? Our intrepid silicon sleuth commented that the IC storage consisted of “a 128 x 128 matrix of storage cells.”

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