From Sand to Processor or How a CPU is made
It takes about $ 5 billion dollars to build a processor manufacturing factory. This factory approximately has 4 years to return the invested funds in its technology, before it will start making the profit. If we make some simple calculations that comes to 100 microchips per hour that the factory should manufacture in order to return the invested funds.
The process of processor manufacturing looks like this: the special equipment is used to grow a mono-crystal of cylindrical shape from the molten silicon. Next, this resulting ingot is cooled and cut into the wafers, which surfaces are carefully leveled and polished to a mirror shine. In the bio-clean rooms of semiconductor factories are created the micro-circuitries on the silicon wafers using photolithography and etching. Then lab personnel make the random testing of processors under a microscope after re-cleaning of the wafers, and if everything is okay, the finished wafers are sliced into individual processors, which later are put in the casing.
Wow, someone really likes putting commas in the oddest places.