As has already been mentioned on the home page, the Die Shot for the 6561 can be accessed here.
One thing that strikes me immediately whenever I look at the 6561E die shot is how artistic it seems to be. Most other die shots I have seen have very little to help distinguish the various parts of the chip. For example, if you take a look at the 6522 VIA die shots, at face value it looks like the whole silicon surface is covered in pretty much the same general patterns, and as a photo it looks a bit ugly. But the 6561E almost looks beautiful. The various parts of the chip are shaped uniquely. I can't help thinking that the designer arranged the metal layer in this way so as to quickly and easily identify the various parts of the chip.
Some progress towards identifying its parts was made by Segher Boessenkool here:
http://segher.ircgeeks.net/vic/
The 6561.xcf image identifies the data lines, address lines, phase 1 and phase 2 clock lines, control registers, and various other metal lines and contacts. It is indeed a very helpful diagram when attempting to identify what parts of the chip relate to the functional blocks shown in the MOS datasheet. It is amazing how Segher was able to do this and I am certainly in awe of his work there. That diagram kind of illustrates what this web site is all about. For me I hope to learn enough about NMOS IC reversing to be able to identify components such as the counters, shift registers, comparators, etc.
I suspect that Segher took his analysis even further, as he suggested in the following discussion that he would produce an image of the die shot with functional blocks identified:
http://www.softwolves.com/arkiv/cbm-hackers/15/15540.html
I'm hoping to be able to contribute to this. But first things first: We need to know something about the IC fabrication process at the time that the VIC chip was created. That is where we'll start in the Basics section, by taking a look at the NMOS IC fabrication process that was in use at the time that the VIC chip was created, and then cover the basics in identifying some of the simplest components, being the Lines, Contacts and Transistors.