IC chip or processor?

[jimicrk]

I'm not sure what this came out of but it was from the last load of telecom equipment I brought home. I'm wondering what the large square thing that says Broadcom on it is. I have been scrapping a lot of Nortel phones and all of the boards have these also.

[Mechanic688]

There is one phone jack on that board. Phone related.

[jimicrk]

Yeah, I just looked at the board again and it came out of a NEC IP phone but what about the Broadcom chip. Is that an IC chip or some kind of processor.

[Scrappah]

The large square thing with Broadcom on it is more likely a processor for a couple of reasons.

See the gold colored arrow ? That tells the assembler how to orient the chip on the board. You see that same thing with a lot of processors on computer motherboards.

If you take a heat gun and desolder it there are lots of tiny contact points just like on a processor. If i'm breaking down boards i usually group them as: solder in, green fiber, capless processors. Where it takes so much time to break down a board it's probably better not to mess with breaking them down. That's more along the lines of being the refiner's job.

You might try Googling the name & part number. Sometimes it will tell you what it is and even the specific thing it was used for.

[BRASSCATCHER]

Its a northbridge chip. Not really a processor, it communicates with the other chips on the board. Find them on mobos, fingercards and telecom boards. Some boards may have two, a northbridge and a southbridge. Where they are positioned on boards in relation to the rest of the chipsets is how they get the name. Good for gold recovery and easily removed with a spackle knife or thin flathead screwdriver. If removed it will downgrade the price you receive from a buyer.

[eesakiwi]

I bend the board right under that chip, then again at right angles to the first bend, then slip a flat blade blunt knife under its edge, then bend it in the other direction.
They normally pop off then.
I save them up and expect to sand the solder spots off, incinerate them and remove the Gold plated Copper part inside it.
Then somehow remove the Gold from the Copper.. But thats for another forum...

[webuyselltradestuff]

what brasscatcher said is correct...I have a buyer that would give between $20-30/lb for those chips....HOWEVER, they are very light. Desoldering or using a board preheater to loosen the solder is the easiest way...other than that, chisel around the edges and then pry it up....other option would be to use a vibrating cutting tool.

I just end up leaving mine on and getting full or better value on the whole board itself....time and effort vs return you know.

[armygreywolf]

I wasn't positive what it was at first so I looked it up. It's an on-die multiplexer. IP phones use these so they can use a common line for multiple phones running duplex communications... The chip receives multiple signals and reassembles the pieces meant for it, outbound is the opposite it cuts up its signal, compresses and sends them out in packets. Broadcom is a maker of these and they can be found in various configurations on everything from network finger cards to wifi cards from laptops...even on board networking have these in smaller sizes.