Foundations of
Silicon Design
A first-principles, hands-on path through the great ideas of hardware. Begin with curiosity: how electricity represents 0 and 1, how gates make decisions, how circuits remember, and how code turns into real manufactured silicon.
What is this strange thing called a chip?
“We use chips everywhere, but what exactly is a chip, and how can something so small do so much?”
From Idea to Silicon
Every step is sparked by a fundamental question. No magical leaps. Click any stage along the progression to inspect its big inquiry and jump in.
Scale & Physicality
The Big Inquiry:
“We use chips everywhere, but what exactly is a chip, and how can something so small do so much?”
Silicon Reality:
Billions of microscopic transistors interconnected across metal layers on a polished silicon wafer.
Ready to tape out your own chip?
Take your design beyond simulation. Join a cohort to synthesize, harden, and submit your custom GDSII to an active MPW foundry shuttle run.