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#1 peripheral, maybe Low Telco
#2 peripheral
#3 midgrade, hoping peripheral
#4 peripheral
#5 peripheral
#6 peripheral
#7 peripheral
#8 peripheral, are the gold tab flat packs on the back enough for a bump?

Here's my guess:

#1: Apple CPU
#4: Low Grade Telecom

Rest Peripheral

Lost, Are ccussins's guesses correct?

Looks correct.

The first one is going to need to be reviewed. It’s old enough to be a class issue. Apple CPU is any cpu that used PD (processor direct) or derivative technology. Basically a compact slot processor with pins instead of edge connector.

The Majority of PDS/PDC cards use fibre CPUs and polymer ICs.
These old designs with ceramics may get bumped around a bit to something else. Though I have no idea what.

The Apple CPU category came around the same time the old supply of ceramic PDS just about dried up industry wide and the late power era fibre chips, of much lower value, became the norm in scrap. (PDS CPUs was green fibre with metal across the board back then).
The outliers are nothing special but they definitely used to be classed different.

If you’re shipping keep them sorted out and add a letter/note/message to the box with them to have a second look. If bringing them in person just ask.

I can’t make a class extraction on this level myself but if it were up to me alone I’d probably push those to high telco. Probably. But I’d have to go into some old files to dig up weights and circuitry etc to make any call.

I’m also forwarding this to Chris for an official answer.

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Actually ignore my pontificating on processor history and just give Chris a day or two to reply with an official classing.

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The pontificating is educational, approximately when did the ceramic CPU's get phased out?

TLDR: most were gone by the mid 2000s.

Different by manufacturer. And phased out doesn’t mean not made. Nor are all new cpus non-ceramic.

Intel left the market with the core line. The P3 being the end of the line for x86 ceramics. Ceramic 960s were made as late as the mid 2000s.

AMD left x86 ceramics with the K6-2 and Athlon. But still makes a risc chip, the 38nn series, in ceramic package for industrial use. Some ARM ceramics are still made too: all SM BGA chips.

Apple switched to fibre mid-line in the Power era. I doubt anyone knows exactly when. I’ve found ceramic boards in G5s. And fibre in the original. General consensus is G4 was the end of ceramic use to any degree. Probably to use up ceramic packages that matched size wise three generations.
But Power 6 and 7 has ceramic varieties. So it was apple’s supply line that moved, not Motorola/IBM.

Nintendo used ceramics as late as the Game Cube.

Sega used ceramics in the DreamCast and still uses them in arcade boards in the M line. The M and AM chips simply can not be cooled properly in fibre. The design, dating to 1994, is one of the early 3D stacked packages and generally requires a ceramic package for passive copper cooling.

Texas Instruments used a ceramic risc chip as late as the TI99 and Explorer line of super calculators.

Not to mention:

As far as I’m aware ALL 256-bit and MOST 128-bit extensions to x86 code are in ceramic packages. This includes the ultra über HP security laptop (running HP-X), and the Falcon 9, running a custom BSD.
So they’re not dead. As much as rarely used.
I know Apple killed ceramics for all NEW cards with the original “Lux” modern iMac. Cooling issues. Placing the mobo in the base with a primarily passive cooling method that was simply the long monitor stand made ceramic heat on the new line impossible. A few ceramic G4 Lux Macs exist but the ceramic G4 board was recalled and replaced with a fibre board for free. So by 2003/2004 there really wasn’t any ceramic Power boards remaining for general recycling streams to find. What remains is in the hands of collectors. And not likely to be replaced.

Keep in mind the biggest advantage and disadvantage of ceramic are the same property. Heat flow. It’s the reason Corelle dinnerware can go from a 0• freezer to a 450• oven to a 72• corian counter with no time in between.
And why a 256-bit 350TDP chip is implemented in ceramic with active fans and copper pipes.
At the same time placing a ceramic card and motherboard in a modern iMac case? Yikes, watch the whole thing melt. Ceramic apple era power chips ran an average temp of 88-94•c. Surrounding board temps reach 50-55•
Ceramic power 6 chips can reach 100+c easily. That HP 256 unit is used as an active server moderator. Not a client. And is intended to be used in a cooled server room. Not the spacious living room seen in the few adverts for it. The whole laptop can reach 75-80•. 80c is 175• F for those interested. You definitely aren’t using that in you “lap”. Or on a particle board desk for that matter.

Ceramic has it’s benefits. The same reason it’s use by SpaceX and was used in the NASA shuttles. It can reach obscene temperatures with no shape expansion.
Cooling it is a whole different post.

They aren’t gone. Just few and far between. Modern CPUs run as such low TDPs that fibre and even solid plastic works well. I don’t know about Intel because I try not to deal with the company unless I must. But AMD still does “short runs”.
You can order 50-500 or so customised implementations (at massive markup) of any chip in their line. Including Ryzen. In ceramic, if you so desire. So if you want to drop five grand per chip to overclock to 8GHz in a mineral oil case have at it.
IBM still will do short runs of Power chips in ceramic as well.
Don’t get me wrong. If I ever win powerball and megamillions in the same week and had a billion dollars a ceramic g3 R9 sounds like fun despite the $250,000 price tag minimum.
I’d buy a giant fish tank and fill it with non conductive mineral oil and led lights and build a R9 kit clocked to 10GHz. Because I could.

But that’s just me. :)

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All Perhipheral grade except for the first one. Lost is correct, it is an Apple CPU. However, this particular incarnation can be put into your HIgh Telecom pile. It is the only Apple CPU that can go there.

For future reference, most all, if not 100% of cable box/dvr boards are going to be peripheral. The gold tabs do not upgrade but they must remain on to maintain grade.

One trick to identify Peripheral is that if the board has a coax or RCA jack(s) then it is almost always Peripheral board. Rarely do they go higher. If they were to grade differently, it would likely be lower.

In review, all Peripheral in this post except for the first pic which is an Apple CPU qualified for High Telecom.

Thanks