"Z2" - Upgraded Homemade Silicon Chips
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as the go-to proof that small-scale, hobbyist chip fabrication is real, and as an entry point to the topic.
What it is
Sam Zeloof shows the upgraded second iteration of his homemade silicon integrated circuit fabrication process, producing chips with around a thousand transistors in his garage. It is a short overview of what the home fab can now do.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec tnorthcutt · 2021-11 · on “How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation”
Mentioned a couple other times in this thread but I don't think anyone has linked Sam Zeloof's video of essentially doing this: [this video] It's fantastic and I highly recommend watching it.
Recommends tanseydavid · 2022-02 · on “The Semiconductor Ecosystem Explained”
A guy named Sam Zeloof is fabbing functional chips in his garage. I think you might gain a lot from watching his videos about the process. [this video]
Recommends reedlaw · 2023-10 · on “How to Make a CPU – A Simple Picture Based Explanation”
This was mostly about making a silicon wafer. This video shows more detail on the rest of the process in a home lab: [this video] (blog here: [LINK] )
Recommends ghghgfdfgh · 2024-05 · on “How to build a $20B semiconductor fab”
Somewhat related: a high school student creating his own semiconductor fav in his parent’s garage on a "budget". [this video] It’s a thoroughly interesting video, but I’m a bit disappointed he never took his idea any further than he did. I’d really love to see something like a 6502 being made at home.
Cites nosianu · 2021-09 · on “Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022”
That was actually a post here on HN just a few weeks ago. Here's one "point of entry" (to find the homepage and similar videos and pages): [this video] "Upgraded Homemade Silicon Chips"
Cites peter_d_sherman · 2024-03 · on “An all-optical general-purpose CPU and optical computer architecture”
This is the best paper I've read in a long time -- this has to go in my "Top 10" favorite posts of all time on HN... (To PaulHoule: Another truly excellent post of yours to HN, thank you very much , the HN community and myself appreciate it greatly!) Anyway, let's delve into it -- here's the key quote, IMHO: >"As the previous discussion showed, SUBLEQ is, of course, not the target realization for optical computing. Its purpose is to showcase the simplest form a general-purpose optical computer could take and an intermediary step we take. It can be implemented with less than 100 logic gates and, given enough memory, able to emulate a full x86 with a graphics card running Windows and Doom™ loa
Cites 7373737373 · 2024-04 · on “TSMC's debacle in the desert: Missed deadlines and tension among coworkers”
I'm surprised I'm not hearing of more homemade/small-scale attempts like Sam Zeloof's ( [this video] ). Not that this is the same class of problem, but still.
Cites thegrimmest · 2024-05 · on “2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years”
It seems you're suggesting that every structure resembling a nation state will be destroyed and we'll end up in a Max Max style dystopia where books are used exclusively to start fires. This is a bit reductionist and simplistic. I'm failing to see how food shortages and displacement, even significant enough to affect a billion people, will destroy all of global civilization . There are estimated to be close to a million nuclear physics PhDs, and millions more non-PhD experts. Nuclear reactors are being constructed on every major continent. And while there is a global bottleneck for current-generation silicon, there are hobbyists who produce previous-generation microprocessors[1]. I've never