Indistinguishable From Magic: Manufacturing Modern Computer Chips

Talk in HOPE09, NYC

Modern computer chips are using transistors with features as small as 22nm. They are produced in factories that are 10,000 times cleaner than an operating room that can think like Skynet. Combined, the chips they produce run everything from your cell phone to the Internet itself. While outsiders might see it as the realm of multi-billion dollar corporations, in reality, it has been achieved through a hardcore application of the hacker mindset. Each new advancement involves hacking the theories of electrical engineering, hacking waves of light, and sometimes hacking physics. In this talk, we will go over how and why the design of a modern nanoscale transistor was developed. We will also talk about the processes used to build them, and the incredible equipment that makes it all possible. Plus some fun stories about what goes wrong.