Chapter 126 - 126: A New Processor
"Are you sure this thing will work Aaron?" asked James, as they stood over a catwalk in Sirius Software's newest semiconductor research facility.
"I'm quite sure about the physics, we now need to put it into practice. Start it up," said Aaron.
James swallowed, and signaled to the team to start the latest fabrication node prototype.
"Synchrotron powering up," he said, as the massive machines in the node powered up.
"X-ray flash initiated, printing mask 1," said Aaron, looking over the diagnostics screen.
Inside the fab machine, X-rays were directed through a LIGA fabricated tungsten mask that was embedded in a lab grown diamond.
Beneath the mask and in a high vacuum, the X-rays penetrated a thick layer of PMMA, carving out deep valleys with perfectly straight walls.
The 64 micron thick "chip cake", a pre-bonded stack of silicon, sacrificial material, metal and other layers, and the etched PMMA then moved an electroplating bath that created tall nickel fins in area not covered by the PMMA.
The remaining PMMA was then dissolved and the layered assembly with the forest of nickel fins went into the ion etching chamber.
Ionized plasma blasted through the top, carving deep valleys into the prepared layers of silicon, sacrificial layers, insulation, metal and dielectrics.
Etching gases then removed the sacrificial layers, and atomic deposition added extra metal and dielectrics, creating complex 3D integrated circuits.
Finally, the nickel fins were lasered off the top, leaving the finished layers of circuits.
"Cake 1 complete. Let's check it," said Aaron.
"That process worked. I can't believe it," said James, as the cake slid out of the nickel removal machine and into the electron microscope for defect checking.
"Yeah well, what remains to be seen is if we just made a very expensive microscopic 3D sculpture or actual processors," said Aaron.
"Microscope is scanning, this thing looks so damn bizarre," said James as they looked through the micrograph that showed what looked like a sprawling set of high-rise skyscrapers.
"OK then, lets dice these up, package them and see what we've got," said Aaron.
---
"Moment of truth," said Aaron, and powered on the test rig that had a Sirius Software HellBlade 640 CPU fresh off the new 3D etching fab.
The screen lit up, and the SiriusOS environment loaded.
"Well, it booted. Let's put it through the paces," he said, and fired up the battery of CPU tests and benchmarks.
"Power draw is at 320 watts, clock speed steady at 4.8 GHz. What the hell did you do to this chip?" asked James as he monitored the power, voltage and thermals.
"The advantage of stacking the transistors seems to be paying off," chuckled Aaron, as the CPU's 640 cores chewed through the CPU tests and benchmarks at a staggering speed.
"Yeah well, the carbon nanotubes seem to be doing their job as well. I was worried we would end up with a very expensive puddle of slag," said James.
"OK, we now know that this thing works, let's do a few more cakes and see if we are able to keep this level of yield," said Aaron.
"Well at this rate we'll be doing about 12 cakes a day, we're pretty slow," said James.
"That's where you're wrong James, each cake yields about 150 usable dies, so that's 1800 dies a day. We carved through an entire cake, so no need for hundreds of printing and bonding steps. The cakes themselves take up the bulk of our turn around time," said Aaron.
"Oh damn, yeah. This thing was ready to cut in 2 hours," said James, shaking his head in disbelief.
Aaron shut down the test rig.
"We've got a winner on our hands here, James. Let's get this fab production ready as soon as possible," he said.
---
"Blacklisting Sirius Software from Computex and our fabs was a bad idea," said Xi Ho, as Li Wei entered his TSMC office.
"Why do you say that?" asked Li.
Xi Ho opened his desk drawer and pulled out a Sirius Software HellBlade CPU.
"This is their gen2 HellBlade CPU. I repeat, generation 2," he said, and showed it to Li Wei.
"Looks the same as the monstrosities they debuted three years ago," scoffed Li Wei.
Xi Ho swiveled his monitor screen around.
"Take a look at the electron micrograph of it," he said.
Li Wei's eyes widened.
"They're way past that 40 nanometer SOI process. See these transistors? They are 40 nanometers wide, so they are bigger than what we have, but they've built them like damn skyscrapers! This smacks of X-ray lithography," said Xi Ho.
"You still can't get economies of scale with those techniques. They'll need to build a damn synchrotron for every fab. Are you sure that thing is off the shelf?" snarled Li Wei.
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't put it past that guy to pull something like that off. Have your friends managed to get any insider info?" asked Xi Ho.
"OK. Let's not panic. They still cannot match our scale. We supply virtually one hundred percent of the computer segments, we don't need to worry too much, yet," said Li Wei, trying to be positive.
"No need to panic? This thing has 640 cores! It has a thermal envelope of 320 watts, and can run at a full 4.8 GHz without breaking a sweat! It's a damn monster! With this 3D thing they are doing, they've managed to squeeze more transistors per square millimeter than anything we have got! Their chips were already these massive dies, and now they are thicker by 64 microns. If we tried to pull this off, our chip layers would melt on first run!" snarled Xi Ho.
"And why isn't this thing not melting?" asked Li Wei.
"These assholes have used vertically aligned carbon nanotube thermal interposer layers. Those things suck the heat right out of that stack, not to mention that their transistors are gate all around," growled Xi Ho.
"OK. Relax Xi, this thing might look like a monster, but there's no way he can scale this. We're talking a full synchrotron per fab here, not to mention billions in making labs that can grow these kinds of diamonds. Even Sirius Software hasn't got that much money," said Li Wei.
"I paid retail for this thing. It was 6400 dollars, that's 10 dollars per core. Either this guy is trying to tank our profit margins, by selling these things at a massive loss, or he's solved those economies of scale," said Xi Ho, brandishing the massive 8cm by 8cm CPU in his hand.
"All right, keep analyzing how they've managed to pull this off. I'll get some samples to our EUV partners and ask if they can replicate it," said Li Wei.
---
"Hi, Mikaela, remember us?" asked Kristen, as she and Olga stood in the doorway.
"Hi, Ms. Ford, Ms. Olga," said Mikaela, who had answered the door before Annette could.
Kristen held up a box.
"We've brought an upgrade for your computer. It will make it faster," she said showing Mikaela the HellBlade 640 CPU box.
"OK, come on in," said Mikaela, as Annette grit her teeth.
Kristen padded into the house and up the stairs.
Mikaela was about to go up after her, but Annette placed a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Let the girl do her job. You can see it after they leave," she said firmly.
"Fine," pouted Mikaela, and flopped onto the couch.
Kristen returned a few minutes later.
"All set Mikaela," she said.
"Yay!" exclaimed Mikaela and dashed up the stairs.
Annette turned to Kristen.
"Ms. Ford, would you mind telling my ex-husband that I do not approve of him spoiling Mikaela, and that no amount of Sirius Software money is going to stop me from laying down that boundary?" she said sweetly, but her eyes were blazing with fury.
"Of course," said Kristen nervously, and went out with Olga.
---
"Ivan, I cannot stop Mikaela from wanting to see you, and you from organizing more visitations, but what I will not stand for is you spoiling Mikaela by buying her expensive things. Have you got that?" snarled Annette into her phone.
"Well hello to you to Annette, this is the first time we've actually spoken to each other since the divorce," came Ivan's voice on the other end.
"Well, you haven't left me much of a damn choice, have you?" shot back Annette.
"All right, how about this? No more expensive gifts for Mikaela from me, and no more veganism for Mikaela from you. You can eat whatever you want, but Mikaela gets to eat a normal diet of both plant and animal sources," suggested Ivan.
"Don't you dare dictate terms to me Ivan Zakhrov!," shouted Annette.
"Then I expect the same courtesy," said Ivan, and the line went dead.
Annette stared at her phone for several seconds, unable to fathom that Ivan had just hung up on her.