Beautiful Silicon

Beautiful Silicon A photographic tour of the naked nano-beauty of Silicon Valley’s masterpieces. Wafers are pizza-sized platters of silicon onto which Silicon Valley pioneers such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have etched the processors that have changed the world since 1971. Semiconductor company executives love silicon wafers, but technology journalists love them even more. Any keynote speech that includes wafer-waving is usually greeted with gasps and an orgy of flashgun activity. Company PR teams often joked that to the press; wafers are like porn. These photographs were originally taken to satiate the media’s hunger. This book contains photographs of processors, graphics chips, and other assorted dies dating from 1971 to the present day. From the teeny-tiny Intel Atom processor to modern behemoths.