Lo wrote:
Gold Plated HeatSink?? where? :-? Isn't that just the chip's "guts"?
Yup, the gold cover comes off if you heat it (it's only held on with a bit of solder).
Under there is the chip. It's not a heat sink, it's simply the cover to the chip cavity.
As far as I can tell, the "Mil-spec" chips are simply early verions of the chip which have to be wired up by hand, later chips can probably be done by machine and sealed in a plastic case in one go.