Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 574 - 572: Magic Chip! (Science popularization, research-oriented, skip if not interested)

Chapter 574: Chapter 572: Magic Chip! (Science popularization, research-oriented, skip if not interested)

Several days later.

Inside Eden, in the main laboratory.

On the table of the main laboratory lay the design drawings for the "Destructive Gloves" alongside the recently transcribed scroll of "Divine’s Right Hand." Richard sat at the table, squinting at them.

Unable to find further clues about Yatis in a short time, Richard had temporarily shifted his focus to the creation of the "Destructive Gloves," preparing to seriously study it. Ideally, if he could create the prototype depicted in the design drawings, that would be even better.

Of course, this was a great challenge.

The "Destructive Gloves" may be Magic Tools, but their complexity was on a different magnitude compared to other Magic Rune Magic Tools. According to what was previously said, the Magic Runes on ordinary Magic Tools are like circuit diagrams with security measures, requiring certain techniques to decrypt and utilize them. However, the Magic Runes involved in the "Destructive Gloves" are more akin to chips.

Yes, chips!

Of course, this was just a metaphor. It didn’t mean that the "Destructive Gloves" actually required chips, but the difficulty was similar.

Speaking of chips, these are almost one of the pinnacle products of high-end technology on Earth.

A chip that can be held in the palm of your hand, measuring even less than a square centimeter, can integrate billions of transistors, completing trillions of operations per second, and within that small space, simulate an imaginary world or calculate all possible outcomes of an event.

If we look at the chip in the current Medieval Wizard World, it’s like an Illusion Technique without flaws, or Prediction Magic with omniscient capabilities.

Of course, the chip’s prowess didn’t happen overnight. It underwent a long path of development to become what it is now.

Before the most basic chips, namely transistors, Earth broadly employed vacuum tubes.

The first computer—the Atanasoff-Berry Computer—was born in the United States in 1942, occupying 150 square meters, weighing 30 tons, and using 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, and 500,000 wires. To call it a machine is less apt than to call it a building; it was immovable, let alone convenient to use.

Because of its obvious drawbacks, scientists began investing a lot of energy from that time to develop a more portable new type of computer.

So...

In 1947, the first semiconductor transistor was created.

In 1950, the junction transistor was born.

In 1958, the integrated circuit was invented.

In 1960, the Light Engraving process was invented.

In 1964, Moore’s law was proposed, predicting that the number of integrated transistors would double every 18 months, and the integrated circuits began to enter a phase of rapid development.

In 1971, large-scale integrated circuits appeared.

In 1978, very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) emerged, with 140,000 transistors integrated on a silicon piece of less than 0.5 square centimeters.

In 1988, very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) were further enhanced, with 35 million transistors integrated on a 1 square centimeter silicon piece.

In 1989, the integration process of transistors in chips reached the 1μm level, i.e., 0.0001 cm.

In 2001, the integration process of transistors in chips reached the 0.13μm level.

In 2003, the integration process of transistors in chips reached the 90nm process, i.e., 0.000009 cm.

In 2018, the integration process of transistors in chips reached the 7nm process, with an integration of several tens of trillions of transistors.

And so, the chip gradually became the leading product of technology.

On Earth, the chip industry is a very typical knowledge-intensive, capital-intensive industry, supported only by the super-powerful financial groups or nations.

Not to mention anything else, the Light Etching Machine essential for making chips alone generally costs about 1 billion RMB, and the complete set of equipment requires more than a dozen Boeing 747s to transport.

And this is just one Light Etching Machine. To make chips, just having a Light Etching Machine is not enough. Uncountable other instruments and equipment are needed to form a complete production line.

Besides the production line, there is a need for more research work.

Without astronomical investment, there would be no results from the chip industry.

And even if results were produced, it wouldn’t mean success, because if the quality of the chips was inferior to the top-notch chips, they would not have enough market share. Even if one were to sell these lower-quality chips cheaply, leaving aside whether consumers would be interested, how many must be sold just to recover costs and how many to fund research for the next generation of chips—these are significant issues.

So, once the chip technology falls behind, it’s not just about a few people shouting slogans and making an effort to catch up. It requires endless investment, unwavering support, a wait of a decade or even decades, and desperate catch-ups over generations of technology to even glimpse a hint of success.

This is what makes a National Treasure!

And now, Richard naturally wasn’t planning to make chips. Although he knew a lot of knowledge, trying to single-handedly rub together a cutting-edge chip production line without the productive capacity of the current world is not just foolish but completely delusional!

However, all things can be adapted. He didn’t need to, nor could he, produce chips from Earth; even if he did, they would be useless—at least for now.

What he was preparing to do was to borrow some of the chip-making processes from Earth to complete the intricate Magic Rune engraving on the "Destructive Gloves" design drawings.

In the design drawings, the number and complexity of the Magic Runes were beyond the average person’s imagination, only through a particular construction layering several layers of Magic Runes to complete the entire "Destructive Gloves."

However, if produced with chip technology, there would be no need for this.

After all, no matter how complex the Magic Runes, they were visible to the naked eye; their precision was above 0.0001 cm, which is the 1989 standard of chip transistor integration processes on Earth.

As long as his method was sound and could perform as imagined, it would be entirely feasible to significantly reduce the area of the Magic Runes, and engrave some or all of the Magic Runes of the "Destructive Gloves" onto a chip the size of a fingernail.

Then, it would be possible to avoid the numerous difficulties in making the "Destructive Gloves" and finally produce a product—a Magic Tools centered around the chip that has never existed in this Medieval Wizard World.

This chip can be called... the Magic Chip.

Hmm, the Magic Chip.

So, what specifically needs to be done?

Richard pondered, tapping his fingers on the tabletop; before long, he had a rough idea.

If some of the processes of the Earth’s chips are used to create the Magic Chip, the most critical technology would probably be... Light Engraving technology.

And to explain this technology in simple terms, it can be regarded as... photography.

Yes, photography.

In this photography, four things are needed: a film, a coating, a mask, and a light source.

Spread the coating on the film evenly, let the light from the light source pass through the gaps in the mask, and shine the special light onto the coated film. Then, when the light from the light source reacts with the coating, the desired shape appears.

The so-called shape, on Earth’s chips, would become a transistor after subsequent processing, and on Magic Chips, it would be the Magic Rune patterns.

Now, the first thing that needs to be resolved is the film.

The film.

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