HardwareProcessorsMy top TikTok account of the minute: this ‘guy with two microscopes’ that peeps inside computer chipsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
HardwareProcessorsMy top TikTok account of the minute: this ‘guy with two microscopes’ that peeps inside computer chipsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: evilmonkeyzdesignz)
It’s all clock speed, cache size and core counts—but what’s really going on under the hood of your latest computer processor? That’s a good question, and one that a fair few university degrees hope to help you understand. If you don’t have the time for a cheeky bachelor’s degree, how about scrolling through a couple of short, informative TikTok videos instead? I’ve just the channel…
Evilmonkeyzdesignzis where you want to head to. Their whole schtick is ripping open computer chips and systems and peering inside with a couple of microscopes. Viewers get to join along for the whole process. They’re mostly concerned with tearing open older chips, presumably to reduce incurring hefty costs with a couple of massive modern chips, but there’s also a degree of older chips having more plainly visible components within them, as you’ll see when you watch the videos.
One of their more recent videos is a look at theIntel 4004, the progenitor to all modern microprocessors. They go into some detail about each block within the chip, zooming close to give a better view of what each bit actually looks like. That’s not easily done with a modern processor—for comparison, the 4004 uses a 10 micron (micrometre) lithographic process while a modernIntel Core i9 14900Kuses a 10 nanometre process node, confusingly known as Intel 7. Though the name of a modern process node doesn’t exactly correlate to its exact transistor size, the newer chip features transistors 10,000 times smaller.
Another video delves inside a memory chip; another an entire wafer made up of teeny tiny chips. Some of the more popular videos take a look at the secret doodles located on many computer chips, such as adinosaur with VR glassesorSonic the Hedgehog. Or a crude drawing of speedy blue guy, anyways. Compared to some components on a silicon chip, these doodles are actually rather huge, but good luck seeing any detail without a microscope.
Avideo on a ‘Digital Receiver’ from Graychipshows just how immensely detailed one of many chips could be within a single device. And that chip was designed back in 1990. Nowadays, we’re stacking more and more onto a single system-on-chip, but there’s a massive market in smaller controllers, memory, ASICs and FPGAs, with a wide range of uses and complexity.
Admittedly some of the best clips over on the channel aren’t even what many would consider a computer processor at all, they’re sensors. Such as theCRM200 MEMs vibrating structure gyroscope.
That’s why I love these sorts of channels—not only Evilmonkeyz but also chip photographerFritzchens Fritzsprings to mind—you get to see the individual bits of a processor that make for meaner, bigger, more performant processors once they’re loaded into a system. Getting up close and personal with even the first ever microprocessors is pretty bewildering, let alone the billion-transistor chips more common today.
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Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
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If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off
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AMD accuses Intel’s Arrow Lake of being a ‘horrible’ product and implies a lack of options for consumers has caused the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortage
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Most Popular
Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11
The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April
Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’
If you’re trying to convince me your ‘companionship’ robot is ‘lifelike’, maybe don’t rip her face off in the demo video
Square Enix launches new anti-harassment policy to protect its employees and partners from abusive fans
The Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcements
Path of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better loot
Palestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 Nakba
Piranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’
Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene
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