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How does the chip get and out of the socket? Is it placed by hand in the bottom with a vacuum pickup tool? At first I thought maybe there might be a vacuum line off the top of the socket cover: the chip held directly to the pillar as it descended down. I assume not though.

The socket mounts to the board with spring loaded contacts; the carrier board is also custom to the socket. You can see some of the chip test & measurement power supplies on the board near the socket. The socket itself is quite expensive, a couple thousand dollars and some weeks to manufacture.

The socket has seen heavy use for initial device bring up and chip probe test development. However, its high cost and fragility limits its use to just the earliest bring up phases. If you are a lucky dabao Alpha board owner, the chip on that board was tested and programmed in this very socket!