die (redirected from died the death)

die, any of various devices used for drawing wire, and for blanking, bending, cutting, machine forging, and embossing. Dies used for striking, or stamping, coins and medals are cut in intaglio, one for the front, another for the back, of the coin. Such dies were used as early as c.800 B.C. in Greece. Diemaking, or diesinking, formerly entirely a hand process in which the graver (a cutting tool), riffler (a file), and chisel were employed, has been accelerated in modern times by the use of diemaking machines supplemented by hand finishing. A punch, or male die, is commonly made as the counterpart in relief of the original die, or matrix; both are preserved as models, and duplicates are made from them for working dies. Sheet metal or other material is blanked (cut) out, shaped, or embossed between the dies by power-operated levers or drop hammers, or by die-casting. The die used for drawing wire or extruding rods is made of hard metal with a hole or a series of progressively smaller holes through which the metal is forced. For making screws or threading pipe a hollow hard metal die with internal threading is used.

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die

Tool or device for imparting a desired shape, form, or finish to a material. Examples include a perforated block through which metal or plastic is drawn or extruded, the hardened steel forms for producing the patterns on coins and medals by pressure, and the hollow molds into which metal or plastic is forced. Modern tools and dies can be traced to the work of Honoré Blanc at the Saint-Étienne armoury in France beginning in 1780. Blanc's techniques were adopted and enlarged in the U.S. by Eli Whitney and others, who used templates (tool-guiding patterns) and fixtures—the antecedents of today's tools and dies—to mass-produce firearms for the U.S. Army (see armoury practice). Today the demand for dies used in metal forming, die casting, and plastic molding is filled by tool- and die-making shops.

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An unpackaged, bare chip. A die is the formal term for the square of silicon containing an integrated circuit. Die is singular, and dice is plural. The terms die and chip are often used synonymously.

Dice on a Wafer

This picture of several dice on the wafer shows the various subsystems on each die (chip). This image is called a "beauty shot," because the different areas are colored for presentation. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)

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1.	(jargon)	die - crash. Unlike crash, which is used primarily of hardware, this verb is used of both hardware and software. See also go flatline, casters-up mode.
2.	(electronics)	die - Plural: dies. An unpackaged integrated circuit.