Intel Makes Video, “From Sand to Silicon”, Documenting the Creation of a Processor

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image Credit: Intel



Intel has made a short but sweet promotional video. “From Sand to Silicon” showcases the fabrication process of the modern day processor. Roughly five decades ago you could actually pull a PCB from most consumer devices and count the transistors on it with one hand. A couple of decades after that and we saw integrated circuits that equaled maybe a hundred to a thousand. Those were on chips ranging from the size of a pen cap to nearly that of a credit card. Fast forward to now and current manufacturing can pack billions onto wafers the size of a finger nail.









There’s a fascinating slide that breezes by and you can miss it if you blink about a minute in. The slide actually shows in good detail the process described in the...

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[Grimlakin]

Interesting video and I like the choice of wording. "Intel was the first to manufacture..." Not the first to develop but the first to make in bulk. IBM in that time period had a lot of technology advancements that applied. Not sure who's making the IP in that area now.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Interesting video and I like the choice of wording. "Intel was the first to manufacture..." Not the first to develop but the first to make in bulk. IBM in that time period had a lot of technology advancements that applied. Not sure who's making the IP in that area now.

I agree on "the first to manufacture. . . .. not first to develop". I've had the same argument with many regarding Ford.

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

I agree on "the first to manufacture. . . .. not first to develop". I've had the same argument with many regarding Ford.

Yet many people still think Ford was the first car. Then when I tell them they were not, but rather the first to develop the rolling assembly line that let them build millions of them in a short time.

Then they ask "Then who made the first car?" le sigh