The deserts of Arizona are home to Intel’s Fab 32, a
$3billion factory that’s performing one of the most complicated electrical
engineering feats of our time. It’s here that processors with components
measuring just 45 millionths of a millimetre across are manufactured, ready to
be shipped out to motherboard manufacturers all over the world. Creating these
complicated miniature systems is impressive enough, but it’s not the
processors’ diminutive size that’s the most startling or impressive part of the
process.
It may seem an impossible transformation, but
these fiendishly complex components are made from nothing more glamorous than
sand. Such a transformative feat isn’t simple. The production process requires
more than 300 individual steps. However, they can be neatly summed up in just
ten...
Before get started
though, if you’re fascinated by all things silicon, don’t forget to check out
our article revealing the amazing history of computer memory