About this Artwork

This listing is for an artwork that displays a historical look at devices capable of doing digital arithmetic from 1-bit devices to 64-bit microprocessors.  Chips have evolved from doing a simple addition of two bits to complex mathematical operations on 64-bit numbers. The chips in this display track the progress from logic chip adders to true microprocessors. The most important criterion for determining the bits of a microprocessor is the size of the accumulator or general-purpose registers. Second is the size of the data path, and the third is the address space size. As an example, if all are 16-bits in size, then the device is called a 16-bit microprocessor. If it is a mix, well, the naming controversy starts. 

The chips used in this display are representative of their respective generations. Here are the devices used in this artwork:

  • 1-bit Half Adder, Motorola 353
  • 1-bit Full Adder, Signetics 7480
  • 4-bit Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU),  Texas Instruments 74181
  • 4-bit Microprocessor, AMD 2901
  • 8-bit Microprocessor, Intel 8751
  • 16-bit Microprocessor, Signetics 68000
  • 32-bit Microprocessor, IBM PowerPC 601
  • 64-bit Microprocessor, AMD Opteron

Framing: 

The artwork is framed in an 11"x 14" black shadow box frame, with glass. All framing materials are acid-free. A narrative about the artwork that includes the artist’s signature is placed on the back of the artwork.

Want to see more ChipScapes?  

About Making Computer Chips:

Computer chips start out as ordinary sand, which is silicon dioxide. However, the silicon must be made very, very pure. The first step is to melt the sand, in a furnace that reaches about 3200o F, and mix with carbon. This first purification process creates 99% pure Silicon, a common output is Silicon Carbide. The Silicon Carbide is processed in a trichlorosilane distillation method to create 99.9999% pure silicon called polycrystalline silicon. The polysilicon is broken up into chunks. These chunks are melted in a crucible at about 2500o F. A silicon crystal seed is dipped in molten silicon and slowly drawn out to create a cylinder of silicon. These silicon cylinders are some of the purest crystals on the planet. Once the silicon cylinder is grown to the desired diameter, it is sawed into wafers. These wafers are polished to achieve a very flat mirror surface. Transistors, and other micro-electronic parts, are built on the polished wafer in layers in a process called etching. The wafer is then sawed into its individual chips. Each chip is mounted in an electronic package that serves to protect it and connect it to the outside world. It has been said that computer chips are the greatest value added product in the world. We essentially take a pile of sand and change it into thousands of dollars worth of computer chips.

General Information:

These artworks are the creation of ChipScapesTM artist Steve Emery. ChipScapesTM are photographs taken of computer chips, boards, and other computer artifacts. They are sort of chip landscapes, or ChipScapesTM for short. Most often a macro-lens or microscope is used with special lightning to achieve these unique artworks. 

Intel, IBM, Fairchild, DEC, Signetics, Intersil, AMD, Zilog, Motorola, MOS, NEC, Texas Instruments, are some of the great chip making companies. Chips like the Intel 4004, MOS 6502, Zilog Z80, AMD 2901, IBM PowerPC and others have changed the way people work and play. ChipScapesTM are dedicated to preserving and sharing these computing and communication technologies that changed the world. ChipScapesTM artworks are fine collectible artworks. ChipScapesTM come is a variety of shapes sizes and colors. Clusters of my artwork make for stunning displays! A ChipScapeTM would make a great gift for the nerd, geek, engineer, programmer, IT executive, or just that technology savvy person in your life.

If you are interested in art on a subject or chip that you don't see listed, please message me. I have hundreds of artwork and cannot keep them all listed. If I have something that I think you would like, I will list it, and you can buy it, or not. 

Also, I do custom artworks. If I think it will be of general interest, the pricing will be similar to what you see in my store. If it is very specific to your interests the pricing will be higher, since I can't spread the development costs over multiple sales.

More Questions?

For more information about ChipScapesTM, please check out my ChipScapes.com website. 

For more information about chip collecting as a hobby, please check out my AntiqueTech.com website.