A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 573 Come out! Little Fire Dragon! No, I mean single-board computer!

With everything prepared and the blueprints roughly drawn, Jiang Xia didn't need to expend too much energy constructing this integrated circuit, since a physical prototype was already in front of him.

It will kill people!

These boards may look unremarkable, but they are actually the result of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' recent efforts. Although the lithography precision is only 10mm, it is insignificant compared to the 3nm of later generations.

But did you know that on that wafer right in the middle, which is estimated to be 20mm² in area, nearly 1000 transistors have already been integrated? Well, more than 800 is almost 1000, isn't it?

So, if Jiang Xia were really foolish enough to build so many transistors, being sucked dry by that unreliable scanner would be the least of his worries!

Dr. Sid, who was in charge of this matter, actually thought these were all defective products. When the project was routinely reported to Jiang Xia yesterday, this strong woman almost burst into tears while reading the data.

Yes, even during the Lunar New Year, these bigwigs from the Chinese Academy of Sciences did not take a break; the first day of the Lunar New Year happened to be their routine reporting day.

Since they had a telephone, Jiang Xia originally intended to wish these people a Happy New Year, but the conversation ended up rambling on about integrated circuits.

"Photolithography technology is still too rudimentary to achieve high-density interconnects..."

"Moreover, the 25mm diameter wafer area is currently too small to accommodate complex circuits. At present, regardless of the quality of the wafers fabricated for this level of integration, only fewer than 10 finished products can be produced!"

"Tsk tsk, Dr. Sid, your demands are too high!" Jiang Xia listened to the heroine's aggrieved words and didn't know whether to praise or encourage her.

Sister, do you know that those big-nosed commercial ICs (Texas Instruments SN502) only contain 4 transistors, yet they dare to sell them for $320...

(Integrated Circuit, or IC for short, refers to commercially available integrated circuits. Just to clarify, you can't think of this as a regular IC card.)

If we put this thing, which integrates about 1000 transistors, on the market, it would blow up the entire IC market, believe it or not!

However, this kind of thing cannot be revealed now, or it will cause trouble, a big disaster.

Dr. Sid had no idea what Jiang Xia was thinking on the other end of the phone; he simply sniffed and continued his report:

"During the finished product verification process, a serious problem was discovered..."

"When more than 200 logic gates are integrated, and the power consumption is ≥2W, the overall integrated wafer temperature will reach over 320 degrees Celsius, and then, something terrible happens..."

Dr. Sid's voice was low as he looked at the somewhat blackened wafer in his hand, his eyes welling up with tears again.

Has a latch-up effect occurred?

"Eh?"

"Oh!" Jiang Xia slapped his forehead, realizing he'd messed up the time.

The term "latch-up effect" is a technical term that emerged after the CMOS process was finalized, so it's normal that people don't know it now.

In simple terms, this is an unexpected triggering of parasitic SCRs within the CMOS structure, which requires comprehensive prevention and control through "reducing parasitic parameters + blocking the triggering path".

can not read it?

Let's put it in a more complicated way: it's just that the heat dissipation was poor and it burned out!

In more technical terms: metal interconnects melt, oxide layer breaks down, and the chip becomes permanently unusable.

"However, wasn't my original plan to start with PMOS, an integrated process that only requires the use of P-channel MOSFETs and conduction through holes?"

Why is it that this common problem with upgraded CMOS technology is appearing now?

Jiang Xia scratched his head, somewhat confused, but Xiao Dai Mao's knowledge of the chip manufacturing industry chain was only obtained from popular science bloggers.

Why did this happen? He was also thinking, "Don't slaughter sheep!"

However, despite not knowing, Jiang Xia clumsily used some data from his mind to comfort Teacher Xi.

They used all sorts of terms like "world-leading," claiming they'd already crushed those guys who could only integrate four transistors, and "advanced architecture"—saying they'd been around for a fifth of a century.

Even so, they still couldn't stop Dr. Sid from crying.

"Waaaah... Drawing the photomask is so expensive! If you make a single mistake, you have to redo it. We estimated the costs, and we've already spent US dollars on the hand-drawn sketches alone!"

Hearing this, even Old Wang, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but grin.

Good heavens, what does twenty thousand dollars even mean?

Although the RMB to USD exchange rate has been stable at 1:2.4618 for a long time, you actually cannot exchange RMB for USD.

Because the other party does not recognize our currency.

In other words, our currency is just a piece of paper on the international market!

Therefore, since 57, our motherland has been promoting the unified purchase and distribution of gold.

The purpose was to use these things to exchange for urgently needed items.

It's tough, really tough!

"Hey! I thought it was something big, but it's just money! When we get back, we'll just make more pots and sell them!"

"Hey, Mr. Sid, let me tell you, making money can be easy, too. Back then, I made £2 from a small notebook using a piece of outdated blueprint! Pounds! Oh, but I wonder how that philanthropist is doing these days..."

As Jiang Xia recounted the past, Professor Xide sniffled again on the other end of the phone: "We know, the funding for the experiment, I heard, was drawn from the money you transferred..."

"Haha, that's settled then! If we don't have money, we can earn it again! At worst, we can get some 4-transistor ICs and sell them..."

"As for the metal melting you mentioned, how about adding a metal mask on the integrated circuit, along with a small fan from an air fryer? That should provide good heat dissipation!"

"As for the hand-drawn photolithography mask, well, there's no way around it, let's just hold on for now!"

Jiangxia is now incredibly nostalgic for CAD, yes, that drawing software.

What, you want to use an EDA toolkit?

Hmm, classmate, it seems you do keep up with current events, but that stuff is all from much later on; we don't need it now!

However, for CAD to run, it needs to be upgraded to an 8080 at the very least.

This creates a classic "chicken or the egg" dilemma, a classic vicious cycle.

Therefore, the only way to break this deadlock is to start with human intervention.

Actually, it's not impossible to write a CAD-like program using Fortran and assembly language now. However, it would be too rudimentary, and it's not worth the effort right now.

Let's wait until the transistor integration reaches 2000, then we'll create something groundbreaking!

After comforting Teacher Xide, Jiang Xia inexplicably thought of that rather neurotic little notebook.

"Kind sir, when are you going to show up again? I'm short of money!"

……

Thus, after learning about the rapid development of integrated circuits, when the instructor suggested improving communication conditions, Xiao Daimao immediately thought of digital radio.

Everything has a clear pattern; hmm, very meticulous!

The shameless writer gave himself a thumbs up!

Okay, now that we've explained the origins of these boards, it's time to connect them.

As the scanner connected the flowing wire, Jiang Xia's eyes lit up.

Oh ho ho, it's coming!

Come out!

The world's first single-board computer!