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Chip 101

36 picture lessons · free · no sign-up

How chips work, explained with pictures.

Short lessons for anyone new to the chip industry. Each one answers a single question with a few drawings and plain words, in about three minutes.

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Lesson 1 · Chips from zero

What is a chip?

onoffwirea chipup to billions of switches
Many tiny switchesA chip, also called an integrated circuit, is a small piece of silicon. It holds many tiny on-off switches, up to billions in a big chip, and the wires that join them.

What you will learn

6 parts, from the chip itself to the work of bringing a new one to life.

  1. Part 1Chips from zeroWhat a chip is, what it is made of, and the main kinds of processors.Chip · Transistor · Chipmaking · CPU · CPU inside · GPU · TPU and NPU
  2. Part 2Inside a modern processorThe parts, signals and software that every power feature depends on.SoC · Clocks · Voltage · BIOS and firmware · Power manager · SKUs and binning
  3. Part 3How chips save powerThe main tricks a chip uses to spend less energy without feeling slow.Why save power · Power types · DVFS · P-states · Gating · C-states
  4. Part 4Sleep and safety limitsHow a computer sleeps, and how limits keep a chip cool and safe.Sleep states · Power limits · Throttling · Which limit wins
  5. Part 5The test labThe machines, settings and tools used to test a new chip.Validation · Test setup · Installing an OS · BIOS settings · Telemetry · JTAG debug
  6. Part 6Working in chip validationHow a power validation team turns all of this into daily work.Chip lifecycle · Enabling features · Test plans · Quick check · Debugging · Triage · What the team does

How a lesson works

  1. One questionEvery lesson answers one question, and gives the answer in its first sentence.
  2. A few picturesThen a few drawings show how it works, one small step at a time.
  3. Check yourselfThe words to know, where you meet the idea at work, and one quick question.

Start with the first question

A chip is a tiny slice of silicon packed with switches, up to billions of them, that work together to compute, store or move data.

What is a chip?