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Compute has a physical address.
Start with the essential manufacturing concepts, then explore the explainers and preserved field guide at your own pace.
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A clear first path
What is a semiconductor fab?
A plain-language map of the factory, process-control system, and surrounding infrastructure that turn a design into repeatable silicon.
Guided startFabless versus IDM: a fuller capital picture
How ownership, outsourcing, and durable contracts can build semiconductor manufacturing access and capability.
Guided startHow semiconductor capacity is bought
A practical taxonomy for reservations, firm purchases, prepayments, guarantees, investments, and anchor agreements.
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More research-ready foundations
History of the foundry model
The educational lineage behind the fabless bargain and the renewed importance of manufacturing control.
Read explainer →Field guideHow TSMC changed semiconductors
Why competitive foundry ownership and customer access can coexist, and why the quality of capacity matters.
Read explainer →Field guideAMD, GlobalFoundries, and the separation of design from manufacturing
A route into the historical split and a current framework for reading capacity commitments after ownership changes.
Read explainer →Field guideAdvanced packaging, CoWoS, and HBM
Why the deliverable is a qualified system, not an isolated logic die.
Read explainer →Field guideSemiconductor accounting: commitments, prepayments, and inventory
How to read commitments, prepayments, inventory, and owned assets as distinct parts of semiconductor manufacturing exposure.
Read explainer →Field guideCHIPS policy and fab ownership
A nonpartisan framework for tracing public capital to manufacturing assets, anchor customers, and durable capability.
Read explainer →Preserved field guide
The original visual chapters
The Lineage
The movement from invention to repeatable production and durable capacity control.
Open chapter →Compute has a physical address
Sites, utilities, tools, material flow, test, and packaging behind compute.
Open chapter →The building is the machine
How a fab becomes a coupled operating system.
Open chapter →From silicon to systems
The manufacturing loop from substrate to deployable system.
Open chapter →The manufacturing horizon
A grounded guide to process, packaging, resources, people, and policy.
Open chapter →Legacy source notes
The preserved source library from the educational edition.
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