Sophia is still out and about. Today I gave her a careful dusting with a paintbrush to remove the top layer of smoky dust.

She looks considerably cleaner now.

You won’t see that in the photos above though. Those were taken before the cleaning.

I’ve also started retaking photographs of my Saturn hardware. I had far too many pictures of chips taken from strange side angles.

Clearly the best way to photograph a microchip is from above.

I managed to document both of my Model 1 Saturns with VA0 mainboards as well. There are many more photos in the photo gallery.

One thing that really stands out on the VA0 is the size of the mainboard and the fact that the controller ports are integrated directly onto it.

The CD-processing interface is carried on a separate board, much like the arrangement inside the Sophia.

The two boards are visually similar in several places. The Sophia hardware has earlier component date codes and its own serial-number markings, but appearance alone is not enough to assume the boards are electrically interchangeable.

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