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22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

wired.com

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Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#61

Post by lotsofpulp »

mysterydip wrote: post #44
osrec wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comfortable money + marketing hype keep it that way unfortunately. If governments really wanted to prioritise innovation, they should consider giving a banker's salary to a research scientist.

At least in the US, they're generally limited to salaries on the "general schedule", and management gets paid more than technical people, because "it wouldn't be fair" to have subordinates that make more than you. So there's a built-in glass ceiling for tech careers. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...

“They” (political leaders) choose to limit salaries, and if a problem is urgent enough, they can somehow find a way pay more. It is just politics. Paying more today increases cash spend today, and that looks bad for them come election time.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#62

Post by moring »

tyingq wrote: post #47
moring wrote: post #3

Does anyone have an idea whether there is a potential hobbyist market for home-grown chips of this size? I know that I would definitely be willing to spend around $100 for a much smaller chip, like quad-gates or slightly above (1200 transistors is way beyond what I thought is possible in a garage), more the larger the chip gets, and ultimately including getting involved in the design of the chip -- but then of course…

I would guess the market would be pretty fragmented, with only so much demand for each chip. Right now, for example, some people buy FPGA based replacements for Commodore 64 "SID" chips, because the originals do fail. Some amount of purists might prefer a "real" chip. But how many? There are also simpler chips in this space that are in demand. Old Kaypros have a couple of custom gate array chips that are hard to repl…

Bad wording on my part. I meant a market for ultra-low-volume fabbing of your own chip designs, not of fixed designs.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#63

Post by icefox11 »

rosndo wrote: post #45
icefox11 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your definition of "anything" appears to encompass only "positive" things.

Is being rich a “negative” thing now? It’s just a completely worthless observation, take the pointless virtue signaling somewhere else.

My comment was merely a semantic point, really boring actually. I don't really understand your frame to comprehend how your originated your first sentence. As far as i can understand you appear to have misinterpreted my reply. With that in mind i suppose your "observation" is completely worthless as well.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#64

Post by balsam »

Anybody has a good estimate of how much this kind of home fab can cost? I am trying to do this in my own apartment (its going very slowly heh) and I estimate it would be USD100000. USD10000 would be barely believable if I can get that broken electron microscope for the same price he did. ($1000). Seems like the vacuum system would be the most expensive part. Another one would be random consumables (vacuum grease, oil, chemicals etc). I am trying to start with the most trivial part from his videos, which seems to be the wirebonder, and thats already like a few hundred minimum.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#65

Post by beowulfey »

futharkshill wrote: post #25

> Zeloof’s family was supportive but also cautious. His father asked a semiconductor engineer he knew to offer some safety advice. As impressive and independent as this is, you have to wonder if any other gifted child could have done the same feat. The article seems to skip over this point, how many people know a "semiconductor engineer"?

Success is a combination of talent and circumstance. It’s always been like that. It’s also why giving opportunities to as many people as possible is so important.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#66

Post by DebtDeflation »

futharkshill wrote: post #25

> Zeloof’s family was supportive but also cautious. His father asked a semiconductor engineer he knew to offer some safety advice. As impressive and independent as this is, you have to wonder if any other gifted child could have done the same feat. The article seems to skip over this point, how many people know a "semiconductor engineer"?

This is a story as old as time. When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and the school held science fairs, the kids whose parents were scientists and engineers had the coolest fair-winning projects while the rest of the kids made baking soda and vinegar volcanoes or lemon batteries.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#67

Post by astura »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #53
was_a_dev wrote: post #49

I've followed this project for a while. And while it truly is an impressive feat, I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. I'm 24 and a physics PhD student, and just afforded my first soldering iron. I lack the space, let alone the equipment to attempt anything close to this. What a lucky, talented guy!

>I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. Living in the US comes with certain advantages like some of the lowest consumer prices in the West including HW equipment being dirt cheap on the second hand market plus houses being big enough for space for such hobbies along with the biggest take home pays yielding some of the highest purchasing power in the West, a formula tough to replicate anywhere else. At le…

A 22-year old full time student can't even afford "dirt cheap" second hand equipment (nevermind the space to store it!) unless:

-They have some sort of windfall

-They have a trust fund or stipend that they receive just for existing

-Their parents pay for everything, or, alternatively, their parents pay for all of their living expenses so their own money is only "fun money."

-They, somehow, have a high paying job. In which case they probably won't be going to school full time also. Or they're "job" is having a lot of followers on social media.

This isn't a knock on anyone, I'm just trying to explain why one young adult student can be excited because they were finally able to save up for a soldering iron and another has a garage full of expensive experiment to tinker with.

It's pretty much implied this guy's living expenses (or most of them) are covered by his parents who also have tons of extra space and tolerance for him using it.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#68

Post by vostok »

b112 wrote: post #37
osrec wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comfortable money + marketing hype keep it that way unfortunately. If governments really wanted to prioritise innovation, they should consider giving a banker's salary to a research scientist.

Governments do, if they work on bombs. Or spying. Or on figuring out the other guy's bombs.

Do you have a source for this? Spying sounds like a pretty interesting job if you can make something similar to FANG.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#69

Post by l-lousy »

astura wrote: post #67
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I just wonder how did he afford all this equipment. Living in the US comes with certain advantages like some of the lowest consumer prices in the West including HW equipment being dirt cheap on the second hand market plus houses being big enough for space for such hobbies along with the biggest take home pays yielding some of the highest purchasing power in the West, a formula tough to replicate anywhere else. At le…

A 22-year old full time student can't even afford "dirt cheap" second hand equipment (nevermind the space to store it!) unless: -They have some sort of windfall -They have a trust fund or stipend that they receive just for existing -Their parents pay for everything, or, alternatively, their parents pay for all of their living expenses so their own money is only "fun money." -They, somehow, have a high paying job. In…

Well he’s (Sam) very likely still living at home, so parents are paying for most things. Plus he has the revenue from YouTube

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage

#70

Post by phkahler »

moring wrote: post #62
tyingq wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess the market would be pretty fragmented, with only so much demand for each chip. Right now, for example, some people buy FPGA based replacements for Commodore 64 "SID" chips, because the originals do fail. Some amount of purists might prefer a "real" chip. But how many? There are also simpler chips in this space that are in demand. Old Kaypros have a couple of custom gate array chips that are hard to repl…

Bad wording on my part. I meant a market for ultra-low-volume fabbing of your own chip designs, not of fixed designs.

Are PLDs still a thing? They can implement most anything a really low density chip like this could.
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