Stone to Silicon

Computing · 1978

Wafer stepper

A machine that exposes chip patterns one die at a time.

GCA's DSW 4800 projected a reduced mask image onto each die in turn, allowing much finer features. Steppers and scanners have been the central tool of chip fabrication since.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

What it led to 2

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data