the board has a plurality of holes extending through it the board is placed over the support upper surface with the pins extending into the holes in the board while the board is over the support upper surface it is cut to separate the integrated circuit packages from one another after the cutting the support is vertically displaced by the actuator to lift the support off the pins in another aspect the invention encompasses an integrated circuit package separator for separating integrated circuit packages from a board application_number US 17647998 A description this disclosure of the invention is submitted in furtherance of the constitutional purposes of the u s patent laws u201c to promote the progress of science and useful arts u201d article 1 section 8 an ic package separator of the present invention and a method of operation of such separator are described below with reference to fig2 6 in referring to fig2 6 similar numbering to that utilized above in describing prior art fig1 will be used with differences indicated by the suffix u201c a u201d or by different numerals referring to fig2 a separator 100 of the present invention is shown in top view separator 100 comprises a table 44 a and a subplate 48 a provided over table 44 a table 44 a can comprise for example an x y table similar to the table 44 described above with reference to fig1 subplate 48 a like the above described substrate 48 of fig1 can be joined to table 44 a through a plurality of downwardly extending pins not shown and comprises a plurality of upwardly extending pins.