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Wikipedia link on microlithography if you want a rabbit hole about wafer making: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Microlithography https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Microli

Wikipedia link on microlithography if you want a rabbit hole about wafer making: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Microlithography https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Microlithography Being able to print something in nanometers is an overlooked technical achievement for human manufacturing.

adhesive_wombat 5y ago
If that rabbit hole appeals, the ITRS reports (now called IRDS[2]) are very good mid-level, year-by-year summary of the state of the art in chipmaking, including upcoming challenges and future directions. > Being able to print something in nanometers is an overlooked technical achievement for human manufacturing. IMO, a semiconductor fab probably is the highest human achievement in terms of process engineering. Not only do you "print" nanometric devices, you do it continuously, in a multi-month pipelined system and sell the results for as little as under a penny (micros, and even the biggest baddest CPUs are "only" a thousand pounds, far less than any other item with literally a billion functional designed features on it). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Roadmap_for_Semiconductors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Roadm... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Roadmap_for_Devices_and_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Roadmap_for_Devi...
- RugnirViking 5y ago
  is it the same reports accessed by the process in https://irds.ieee.org/home/how-to-download-irds https://irds.ieee.org/home/how-to-download-irds ?
  - adhesive_wombat 5y ago
    For IRDS, yes.
hadlock 5y ago
This is briefly touched upon in Neal Stephenson's "Seveneves", after The Cataclysm happens humanity regrows most technology, but for the most part ICs are limited to 8086-level devices as even thousands of years later they are unable to reach the level of semiconductor technology before it. The amount of technology and power in something as small as a cell phone or lowly raspberry pi is nothing short of a marvel, particularly at their price points.

adhesive_wombat 5y ago

If that rabbit hole appeals, the ITRS reports (now called IRDS[2]) are very good mid-level, year-by-year summary of the state of the art in chipmaking, including upcoming challenges and future directions. > Being able to print something in nanometers is an overlooked technical achievement for human manufacturing. IMO, a semiconductor fab probably is the highest human achievement in terms of process engineering. Not only do you "print" nanometric devices, you do it continuously, in a multi-month pipelined system and sell the results for as little as under a penny (micros, and even the biggest baddest CPUs are "only" a thousand pounds, far less than any other item with literally a billion functional designed features on it). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Roadmap_for_Semiconductors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Roadm... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Roadmap_for_Devices_and_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Roadmap_for_Devi...

RugnirViking 5y ago
is it the same reports accessed by the process in https://irds.ieee.org/home/how-to-download-irds https://irds.ieee.org/home/how-to-download-irds ?
- adhesive_wombat 5y ago
  For IRDS, yes.

hadlock 5y ago

This is briefly touched upon in Neal Stephenson's "Seveneves", after The Cataclysm happens humanity regrows most technology, but for the most part ICs are limited to 8086-level devices as even thousands of years later they are unable to reach the level of semiconductor technology before it. The amount of technology and power in something as small as a cell phone or lowly raspberry pi is nothing short of a marvel, particularly at their price points.