I think, but don’t know, they probably use a chip tester. These are customisable boards with multiple sockets each taking multiple chips. They’re basically very fancy breadboard units with power and io controllers that basically power up the chip and send micro currents to each address to find any empty replies.
They run a few thousand dollars per design. I’ve had a few over the years, all for pre 286 CPUs. Though I always got mine used for very low cost.
On the flip side it’s not unreasonable to figure they got one in scrap and someone knew what it was and how to get it up and running. That’s my secret to getting them.
You could build your own from a parts store for a few hundred or so, say a fry’s or the like. Commercial ones come with fancy cases and pin expanders so you can do it all off the board and easy replace parts. Otherwise you’re paying for eye candy and lack of required assembly going that route
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