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How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

blog.robertelder.org

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Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#171

Post by rhapsodic »

zackmorris wrote: post #170
rhapsodic wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anti-intellectual backlash of the early 2000s I've never heard of this. Could you elaborate, please?

Strange, because for me, the stark contrast between the 90s and 2000s is unmistakeable. After the dot bomb and 9/11, the political climate in America went dark and that's also something that's never recovered. America decided to double down on neoliberalism with the war on terror, so we've had endless bizarre legislation like the DMCA and PATRIOT act coinciding with our exploitation of developing countries and fear o…

Hey, I'm shadowbanned, so please give me a "vouch" if you see this.

None of what you say makes very much sense to me, I'm afraid. Perhaps some of the things you present as facts are accurate, but I still don't see how you conclude from those facts that there was an "anti-intellectual backlash in the early 2000s." Thanks for the reply, though.

Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#172

Post by jacquesm »

userbinator wrote: post #141
nynx wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sam is super impressive, but to be fair he bought premade wafers and bought a used SEM.

Jeri Ellsworth has gone "deeper" into the process and made a few transistors, although at a much larger scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_znRopGtbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qph8BNrnLY

To me this is far more impressive than any of the other stuff posted here. It's actually doing it rather than talking about it or faking the first 99.9% of it.

Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#173

Post by jacquesm »

ezconnect wrote: post #162
nynx wrote: post #54

It'd be really awesome if microprocessors, even at a low-end process node like 130 nm, could be made with room-sized machines or smaller. There's a lot of space for companies wanted to manufacture their own MCUs, for instance, without relying on massive supply chains. I think this'll happen at some point, as silicon manufacturing hits final roadblocks and becomes increasingly commoditized, but it'd be nice if it were…

You can buy or rent Yokogawa modular machines for making chips. Fits in a room. https://cdn.aff.yokogawa.com/9/400/details/minimal-fab-one-s... *I added a reference link

Any idea what something like that costs?

Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#174

Post by jacquesm »

kayson wrote: post #24

Circuit designer here - feel free to ask any questions about the manufacturing process, design etc. Having a thorough understanding of the process, I thought this was hilarious. But if you really want to understand the process, it's pretty terrible. It spends 10 steps on making a wafer, and then the bulk of the actual process is condensed to 16.

It's infotainment, not information. I really like the 'indistinguishable from magic' video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4

lots longer, but far more informative and less fluffy.

Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#175

Post by omegalulw »

jiggawatts wrote: post #131

If you ever code something that "feels like a hack but it works," just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking. Not to oversimplify: first you have to flatten the rock and put lightning inside it. Source: https://twitter.com/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456

> If you ever code something that "feels like a hack but it works," just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking.

Is the "rock" "thinking" though? What _is_ "thinking"? Another way to look at a CPU is as a rock that we "carved" to conduct electricity in a specific way. It doesn't think - we interpret how the electricity flew and "think".

Re: How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation

#176

Post by orangepenguin »

omegalulw wrote: post #175
jiggawatts wrote: post #131

If you ever code something that "feels like a hack but it works," just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking. Not to oversimplify: first you have to flatten the rock and put lightning inside it. Source: https://twitter.com/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456

> If you ever code something that "feels like a hack but it works," just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking. Is the "rock" "thinking" though? What _is_ "thinking"? Another way to look at a CPU is as a rock that we "carved" to conduct electricity in a specific way. It doesn't think - we interpret how the electricity flew and "think".

I asked my thinkingrock if it could think and it said yes. Really though, "thinking" is very hard to define. Do animals think? Do insects think? Do bacteria think? I'm sure somewhere we could find an example of a "living" thing that people consider to have thinking capability whose abilities are substantially more primitive than a CPU. So... why not say a CPU can think?
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