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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

#61

Post by adminscoffee »

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…

yeah you are onto something. massive supply chains have a ton of carbon footprint. which some people that doesn't matter but for someone like myself, i am a bigger fan of less carbon emissions. i wonder if there is a way we can build an etching machine and print chips somehow, the process seems a little clearer after watching this simplified video. i think it can be done, everything complex is just a bunch of simple steps, solve each step and get closer to the goal. might be fun to create a github type community where people push their ideas to a source control platform where others can chime in and give their input. so like open source chip manufacturing, kinda like how 3d printers started out with makerbot and other open source printer projects.

i think it can be done and it would be fun. we have to filter out people who have a vested interest in chip manufacturers because they may try to over complicate the process to protect their purse. so like a vouch system, where we know the people coming in have the right heart and won't purposely screw up moral

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

#62

Post by XnoiVeX »

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…

If you knew enough VHDL you can make your own digital chips including CPUs using off the shelf FPGAs...

https://blog.classycode.com/implementing-a-cpu-in-vhdl-part-...

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

#63

Post by jtolmar »

capableweb wrote: post #29

I recall there being a game mentioned somewhere here on HN, where you start with basic logic gates (I think), and you build up a fundamental CPU at the end of the game, using the parts you discovered along the way. Problem is, I don't remember what the game is called, and no amount of searching seems to help me. Anyone know what it was called?

Silicon Zeroes [1] starts out slightly more abstracted than what you described (byte-level operators, register files, ALUs, that sort of thing) and builds up to a full CPU.

[1] https://pleasingfungus.itch.io/silicon-zeroes

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

#64

Post by pphysch »

zackmorris wrote: post #17
lsiunsuex wrote: post #8

I've always been curious how someone gets into this line of work. Is it all via college / post education and your directly recruited by these companies? Obviously, this is a very hard (impossible?) thing to teach yourself. I can't imagine more than a few universities offer this type of education? Where would you start / what path would you go down to be a chip designer / work for an Intel / AMD ???

I got my electrical and computer engineering (ECE) degree in 1999 from UIUC and learned everything but the very lowest-level chemistry, because I specialized in the VLSI (circuit design) side instead of fab. At that point, stuff like MIPS and the DEC Alpha were popular, and computers were just breaking the 1 GHz barrier. Unfortunately the dot bomb happened right after I graduated, and the anti-intellectual backlash o…

This doesn't really answer the GP and reads like sour grapes from a "formal/academic" type who missed the boat on the last 2 decades of advances in computing and AI.

> But the world went with imperative programming, nondetermistic async, rasterization, neural nets.. just really complicated and informal systems that are difficult to scale

...wat?

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

#66

Post by trollied »

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…

Well, this chap managed to make his own chips at home: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/category/semiconductor/

Plus an electron microscope!

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

#67

Post by GhettoComputers »

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.

Can you talk about if the US has microchip supremacy due to raw materials from Spuce Pine's pure silicon, and if there are any sources that are almost as good or being used instead? Is it almost like De Beer's diamond monopoly?

Do you use any countries or specific factories that do better refinement or are the raw materials directly shipped to the manufacturing country? What do you make from the wafers usually? Are certain sizes much harder to make? I know for example that larger sensor for digital cameras are much harder to make. I also heard of redundant circuits used to increase the yields of chips, how often is this used and when is it most useful versus less?

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

#68

Post by gorgoiler »

It’s really really fun doing this in software. You should try it.

Fetch decode execute cycle. Registers. Memory. An instruction set. An assembler. And plug it all into an emulator to watch your factorial(n) at work!

Here’s one someone else made earlier:

https://www.peterhigginson.co.uk/AQA/

It’s rubbish. So is yours, but you’ve got to build it first before you can brag.

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

#70

Post by amelius »

trollied wrote: post #66
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…

Well, this chap managed to make his own chips at home: http://sam.zeloof.xyz/category/semiconductor/ Plus an electron microscope!

He used wafers with premade structures on it.
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