Photo Shows How Computer Chips Were Made In 1975

[Megalith]

Here is a blast from the past—a Motorola engineer looks at masks for chip engraving all the way back in 1975. These could actually make for some pretty cool abstract art for bare walls.

…how do they get these impossibly complex designs into the processors? That leads us to the photo…featuring a Motorola engineer in the 1970s, taking a close look at the drawn transistors of a computer chip. These sheets, all color-coded, would soon be printed onto a piece of silicon, giving a tightly-wound processor more computing ability than one could ever get from a printed circuit board on its own. A major innovation came about in the computing space roughly a decade prior, when it was realized that transistors could be drawn into complex integrated circuits.

 

[otherweeb]

Honestly, I believe photo lithography is still the process that all 'chips' and made by.

 

[Advil]

That is seriously cool.

 

[Armenius]

Honestly, I believe photo lithography is still the process that all 'chips' and made by.

In general, yes. EUV lithography is the next big thing, though, to get around the physical limitations of photolithography. TSMC and Samsung will be making 7nm using EUV.

 

[naib]

Honestly, I believe photo lithography is still the process that all 'chips' and made by.

it is, but back then, that was hand drawn

 

[Ur_Mom]

That's some amazing shit. I'd love to learn how things worked on that level. I've done some basic research and understand some of it at a very tiny basic level. Very interesting stuff.

 

[charold]

That's some amazing shit. I'd love to learn how things worked on that level. I've done some basic research and understand some of it at a very tiny basic level. Very interesting stuff.

If you are talking about how computer processors and memory work, there's a great book called Code. It goes through the process step-by-step building on each topic slowly, making it very easy to follow along. It doesn't read like a text book either so it's easy enough to follow through. Link HERE

 

[Insula Gilliganis]

I was confused before things were explained to me..

 

[Ur_Mom]

If you are talking about how computer processors and memory work, there's a great book called Code. It goes through the process step-by-step building on each topic slowly, making it very easy to follow along. It doesn't read like a text book either so it's easy enough to follow through. Link HERE

Thanks! I'll have to give that a read. I've got a few books on assembly (68K CPU) and a few textbooks for computer engineering. Not really part of my career path, but still very interesting and fun to learn about.