I recently got a heap of old Cabletron networking blade switches, and each of the blades had either a socketed or soldered Intel i960 ceramic chip. I was informed that each of these chips will go as a 386/486. The socketed chips I already harvested, but when it comes to the soldered ones, what method would one use to remove those? I do have a 1500w heat gun and assorted screwdrivers available, but would I need additional tools to melt the solder more around the bottom of the board where the chip is soldered to remove the i960 chip?

Only the gold cap gold leg ceramics are 486.
Ceramic no cap gold pins are pentium/mac ceramic
No cap no pins are pinless cpu.

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The heat gun might do it, try one and see how easy it comes off. Might need to brush the solder off the pins with a fine stainless brush. What are you going to do with the boards after you remove the chip? Probably easier to sell the whole board without extra work.

Bingo. Anything with an i960 soldered to it is probably worth more whole than removing chips.

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