5 ms·

What is the most advanced and performant processor which may be reasonably manufactured in a home garage?

by hated 6y ago

DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
I don't know the answer, but which particular limitations do you have in mind with the term "home garage"? I.e.: - space - power and cooling capacity - freshwater and wastewater capacity - legality of storing / disposing of toxic materials - proximity to a residential dwelling - equipment cost - amount of noise produced
userbinator 6y ago
If by "processor" you're not restricting yourself to single-chip microprocessors, then probably something like this: http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ ...probably equivalent in performance to a minicomputer from the 70s.
simongr3dal 6y ago
The short answer is no for most definitions of a home garage. Take a look at this fella: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ The page has a short video goes over some of the tools and materials that went in to making a small amplifier chip. I don't have any experience with making integrated circuits but just from the looks of it, scaling it up to make an entire processor seems a little far fetched. If you're in it for the fun of having a small project you can pretty easily make your own PCB and solder microchips onto it in almost any home garage.
- bserge 6y ago
  Amazing, it takes so much work and tooling to make a simple, decades old IC. Modern processor fabrication is simply magic by comparison.
  - neurostimulant 6y ago
    If by any chance all modern processor manufacturers simply cease to exist at the same time (e.g. WWIII happen and those manufacturers are marked as strategic target and destroyed), I wonder how long it would take for us to get back to the same level of tech. 10 years? 20 years?
    - nl 6y ago
      Not long - Intel at least has its factories very standardised so they can recreate them anywhere they get sufficient subsidies.
      - bserge 6y ago
        Who holds the secrets/documentation to the chip designs themselves? I reckon without the right experts, it would be very hard. Plus, Intel uses equipment from third parties, too. It's like the Saturn V - the documentation/blueprints/etc was massive, secret, spread all over, making it basically impossible to recreate the rocket just by "following instructions", replacement stuff would have to be recreated from scratch.
        nl 6y ago
        Chip fabrication has traditionally been a US strategic technology supported by US government investment in return for making sure there are complete supply chains available in the US or friendly nations (specifically Japan and Taiwan). The US has tightly controlled the export of advanced processes, which is why even TSMC isn't allowed to manufacture in China with processes below 22nm. I believe (Chinese based company) SIMC has a new 8nm process they developed themselves, but people have doubts about the yield. See https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/the-chip-wars-of-the-21st-century/ https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/the-chip-wars-of-the-21st-... for some details about this. What's more we are constantly building new plants and processes. This isn't like the Saturn V where the plans were mothballed. Sure, if you killed all semi-conductor engineers, and everyone at Intel and TSMC and Samsung I'm sure there would be problems. But realistically chip manufacture is one of the things I'd feel more confident about being able to recover.
    - 6y ago
postalrat 6y ago
Using what for raw materials? Sand?
bserge 6y ago
Looking at the links others posted, I'd just go the scavenger route... it would be easier to build stuff around any processor instead of making your own. It's simply amazing how bleeding edge modern fabrication is.

What is the most advanced and performant processor which may be reasonably manufactured in a home garage?

by hated 6y ago

What is the most advanced and performant processor which may be reasonably manufactured in a home garage?

I don't know the answer, but which particular limitations do you have in mind with the term "home garage"? I.e.: - space - power and cooling capacity - freshwater and wastewater capacity - legality of storing / disposing of toxic materials - proximity to a residential dwelling - equipment cost - amount of noise produced

userbinator 6y ago

If by "processor" you're not restricting yourself to single-chip microprocessors, then probably something like this: http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ ...probably equivalent in performance to a minicomputer from the 70s.

simongr3dal 6y ago

The short answer is no for most definitions of a home garage. Take a look at this fella: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ http://sam.zeloof.xyz/first-ic/ The page has a short video goes over some of the tools and materials that went in to making a small amplifier chip. I don't have any experience with making integrated circuits but just from the looks of it, scaling it up to make an entire processor seems a little far fetched. If you're in it for the fun of having a small project you can pretty easily make your own PCB and solder microchips onto it in almost any home garage.

bserge 6y ago
Amazing, it takes so much work and tooling to make a simple, decades old IC. Modern processor fabrication is simply magic by comparison.
- neurostimulant 6y ago
  If by any chance all modern processor manufacturers simply cease to exist at the same time (e.g. WWIII happen and those manufacturers are marked as strategic target and destroyed), I wonder how long it would take for us to get back to the same level of tech. 10 years? 20 years?
  - nl 6y ago
    Not long - Intel at least has its factories very standardised so they can recreate them anywhere they get sufficient subsidies.
    - bserge 6y ago
      Who holds the secrets/documentation to the chip designs themselves? I reckon without the right experts, it would be very hard. Plus, Intel uses equipment from third parties, too. It's like the Saturn V - the documentation/blueprints/etc was massive, secret, spread all over, making it basically impossible to recreate the rocket just by "following instructions", replacement stuff would have to be recreated from scratch.
      - nl 6y ago
        Chip fabrication has traditionally been a US strategic technology supported by US government investment in return for making sure there are complete supply chains available in the US or friendly nations (specifically Japan and Taiwan). The US has tightly controlled the export of advanced processes, which is why even TSMC isn't allowed to manufacture in China with processes below 22nm. I believe (Chinese based company) SIMC has a new 8nm process they developed themselves, but people have doubts about the yield. See https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/the-chip-wars-of-the-21st-century/ https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/the-chip-wars-of-the-21st-... for some details about this. What's more we are constantly building new plants and processes. This isn't like the Saturn V where the plans were mothballed. Sure, if you killed all semi-conductor engineers, and everyone at Intel and TSMC and Samsung I'm sure there would be problems. But realistically chip manufacture is one of the things I'd feel more confident about being able to recover.
  - 6y ago

postalrat 6y ago

Using what for raw materials? Sand?

bserge 6y ago

Looking at the links others posted, I'd just go the scavenger route... it would be easier to build stuff around any processor instead of making your own. It's simply amazing how bleeding edge modern fabrication is.