just relax a bit...that is the space where steve jobs himself places his thumb for 37 seconds, thus embedding his RDF on to each and every die for the life of the board...
The feathers just happened to be in those shots....they use exotic dancers in the chip fab facilities....they've got excellent "skills". Well worth a $20 bill.
IBM must be very confident of these chips if they let the public view photos such as these. Mostly, I think someone was having fun. Unless the photos disappear soon, I'll take this as a very good sign that these chips are so good that the marketing folks etc let these photos out for some laughs.
Well to get back to idle speculation what are the tiny IC arranged around the core? They are tiny! I wonder if they are a built in cache of some kind. They could easily be some kind of SRAM. Maybe the L3 cache is in package but not on die? Conflicts with what we know about the chip but anything is possible.
Well to get back to idle speculation what are the tiny IC arranged around the core? They are tiny! I wonder if they are a built in cache of some kind. They could easily be some kind of SRAM. Maybe the L3 cache is in package but not on die? Conflicts with what we know about the chip but anything is possible.
No they're not cache chips, but resistors or some other ICs having to do with the chips power-supply I think. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.
Hmmm, nice close-up shots indeed, but to be honest - I have no idea what the hell I am looking at?! I always wondered, but never saw an actual processor before and never knew what was in there.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of? What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
On the other sides, what are all those little silver dots, and on the top, what are those little beige things incased in the silver all around the edge of the processor?
I love how they take this crazy photo with multi-colored feathers and then, perhaps more characteristically for IBM, caption it so matter-of-factly as: "IBM 64-bit PowerPC 970 microprocessor chip with feathers. (#90)."
As if somebody might be perusing the photos and think, "Yes, but, of course, what does it look like with multi-colored feathers?" And they can answer (dryly), "That'd be photo #90."
I want to know: what does it look like with orange, peanut M&M's?
No they're not cache chips, but resistors or some other ICs having to do with the chips power-supply I think. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.
Those are capacitors. They filter out the very high frequency noise on the power supply lines. They have too be placed as close to the die as possible. They are found on many CPUs, the 74xx's included.
Those are capacitors. They filter out the very high frequency noise on the power supply lines. They have too be placed as close to the die as possible. They are found on many CPUs, the 74xx's included.
Hmmm, nice close-up shots indeed, but to be honest - I have no idea what the hell I am looking at?! I always wondered, but never saw an actual processor before and never knew what was in there.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of? What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
On the other sides, what are all those little silver dots, and on the top, what are those little beige things incased in the silver all around the edge of the processor?
Just a few easy questions.
Well, for the easy ones:
The silver dots are balls of solder. They are for connecting the chip to the board during assembly. As mentioned, the beige things are capacitors.
The squares and lines are areas of transistors placed in a regular pattern, such that they form areas that ar visible with the naked eye. Many of them are caches or registers. They are made of silicon with various impurities (phosphorus, for example), metal (copper), and oxidized silicon.
They mean wafers because that is what you call a thin slice of something. They are called dice (or die, singular) becuase that is what you call the result of dicing something; in this case a wafer.
Silicon is part of a group of elements which are called semiconductors. This means that they are somewhere between insulators and conductors in their ability to conduct electric current. Semiconductors are usefull because, by adding impurities, one can control just how conductive that area really is. Silicon is great for this because it is abundant and cheap (think sand).
Yeah, and does anyone else find it funny that scientists decided to call "adding impurities to semiconductors" n or p-type "doping?"
Doping...hahahah
...
Yeah, so for these pictures -- was IBM trying to show the scale of the proc or something? It could be they know this thing is going to be so amazing that putting it in such shots is a jab at the supremacy of the "Pentium" family of chips, heh, almost like "we can afford to be idiots because this proc is going to rock your world in a bad way."
Hmmm, nice close-up shots indeed, but to be honest - I have no idea what the hell I am looking at?! I always wondered, but never saw an actual processor before and never knew what was in there.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of?
The big identical rectangles are cache. The ones at the top are the biggest and thus probably L2. The rectangles in the middle are smaller and fewer in number, so they make up L1 cache. Branching and Load&Store tend to be in the middle of the chip, probably to the left of the L1. The rest of the stuff is somewhere else
Quote:
What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
You really want your own private lecture, don't you? Fortunately for me, Arstechnica has a pretty thorough coverage of CPU theory. You might want to start with Understanding the Microprocessor
It pains me to think that I refused to take a single computer-science class in college, yet following this saga has forced me to learn more about chip design and manufacturing in the last year than I knew my whole life pre-G4. It makes my brain hurt.
If someone had told me two years ago that my buying decision on a PowerBook would come down to whether it had a 7450 or 7455... \
Comments
Originally posted by thegelding
just relax a bit...that is the space where steve jobs himself places his thumb for 37 seconds, thus embedding his RDF on to each and every die for the life of the board...
g
LOL
This just has to be the Best Thread Ever?
G3 with jewelry: http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...2569ED004CF2E2
PowerPC 440 with ice cream: http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...2569ED004CF2FA
"PowerPC 750FX Microprocessor On Copper With One and A Half Inch Glass Stars And Silk Ribbon": http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...256AE9004E32E5
Perhaps IBM is thinking of branching out into modern art. Or perhaps they discontinued their employee drug testing program.
Originally posted by 3.1416
There's a bunch of weird stuff in the "Pervasive" section of their photo gallery. Examples:
G3 with jewelry: http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...2569ED004CF2E2
PowerPC 440 with ice cream: http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...2569ED004CF2FA
"PowerPC 750FX Microprocessor On Copper With One and A Half Inch Glass Stars And Silk Ribbon": http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...256AE9004E32E5
Perhaps IBM is thinking of branching out into modern art. Or perhaps they discontinued their employee drug testing program.
Must. Have. Someone. Explain. This. Now.
Originally posted by FotNS
Picture #89 is pretty cool. It is a good shot of the top of the CPU.
http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...A?OpenDocument
Well to get back to idle speculation what are the tiny IC arranged around the core? They are tiny! I wonder if they are a built in cache of some kind. They could easily be some kind of SRAM. Maybe the L3 cache is in package but not on die? Conflicts with what we know about the chip but anything is possible.
Originally posted by JRG
Well to get back to idle speculation what are the tiny IC arranged around the core? They are tiny! I wonder if they are a built in cache of some kind. They could easily be some kind of SRAM. Maybe the L3 cache is in package but not on die? Conflicts with what we know about the chip but anything is possible.
No they're not cache chips, but resistors or some other ICs having to do with the chips power-supply I think. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of? What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
On the other sides, what are all those little silver dots, and on the top, what are those little beige things incased in the silver all around the edge of the processor?
Just a few easy questions.
Originally posted by Patchouli
What does it all mean?
It means that it's going to be one frakin' fast chip
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
Must. Have. Someone. Explain. This. Now.
So they hired Suze Randall to spice things up a bit: no biggie.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/photolibr...256C530055BF25
I love how they take this crazy photo with multi-colored feathers and then, perhaps more characteristically for IBM, caption it so matter-of-factly as: "IBM 64-bit PowerPC 970 microprocessor chip with feathers. (#90)."
As if somebody might be perusing the photos and think, "Yes, but, of course, what does it look like with multi-colored feathers?" And they can answer (dryly), "That'd be photo #90."
I want to know: what does it look like with orange, peanut M&M's?
Originally posted by NETROMac
No they're not cache chips, but resistors or some other ICs having to do with the chips power-supply I think. Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong.
Those are capacitors. They filter out the very high frequency noise on the power supply lines. They have too be placed as close to the die as possible. They are found on many CPUs, the 74xx's included.
Originally posted by Transcendental Octothorpe
Those are capacitors. They filter out the very high frequency noise on the power supply lines. They have too be placed as close to the die as possible. They are found on many CPUs, the 74xx's included.
Thanks
Originally posted by Patchouli
Hmmm, nice close-up shots indeed, but to be honest - I have no idea what the hell I am looking at?! I always wondered, but never saw an actual processor before and never knew what was in there.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of? What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
On the other sides, what are all those little silver dots, and on the top, what are those little beige things incased in the silver all around the edge of the processor?
Just a few easy questions.
Well, for the easy ones:
The silver dots are balls of solder. They are for connecting the chip to the board during assembly. As mentioned, the beige things are capacitors.
The squares and lines are areas of transistors placed in a regular pattern, such that they form areas that ar visible with the naked eye. Many of them are caches or registers. They are made of silicon with various impurities (phosphorus, for example), metal (copper), and oxidized silicon.
They mean wafers because that is what you call a thin slice of something. They are called dice (or die, singular) becuase that is what you call the result of dicing something; in this case a wafer.
Silicon is part of a group of elements which are called semiconductors. This means that they are somewhere between insulators and conductors in their ability to conduct electric current. Semiconductors are usefull because, by adding impurities, one can control just how conductive that area really is. Silicon is great for this because it is abundant and cheap (think sand).
What does this mean?
Why new, faster PowerMacs soon!
Doping...hahahah
...
Yeah, so for these pictures -- was IBM trying to show the scale of the proc or something? It could be they know this thing is going to be so amazing that putting it in such shots is a jab at the supremacy of the "Pentium" family of chips, heh, almost like "we can afford to be idiots because this proc is going to rock your world in a bad way."
Originally posted by Patchouli
Hmmm, nice close-up shots indeed, but to be honest - I have no idea what the hell I am looking at?! I always wondered, but never saw an actual processor before and never knew what was in there.
What are all those squares, lines, and widgets in there? What are they made of?
The big identical rectangles are cache. The ones at the top are the biggest and thus probably L2. The rectangles in the middle are smaller and fewer in number, so they make up L1 cache. Branching and Load&Store tend to be in the middle of the chip, probably to the left of the L1. The rest of the stuff is somewhere else
What do they do? What does it all mean? Why do they call it a die, and what do they mean by wafers? Where's the silicon and how the hell does silicon help make a processor what it is?
You really want your own private lecture, don't you? Fortunately for me, Arstechnica has a pretty thorough coverage of CPU theory. You might want to start with Understanding the Microprocessor
Originally posted by fred_lj
Yeah, and does anyone else find it funny that scientists decided to call "adding impurities to semiconductors" n or p-type "doping?"
Doping...hahahah
Doping refers to much more stuff than just semiconductors.
You dope the fabric with a liquid.
Edit: That liquid is refered to as "dope"
If someone had told me two years ago that my buying decision on a PowerBook would come down to whether it had a 7450 or 7455...