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I saw this video yesterday and considered posting it, but I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for HN.

This channel has another video where it shows how the clean room lab is created starting from a basic backyard shed, and that was truly astounding. The positive pressure to keep the number of particles low in someone’s backyard is almost mystical to me.

If you haven't seen this one, I highly recommend it:

Indistinguishable From Magic: Manufacturing Modern Computer Chips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4&t=2070s

It's quite old but I think there is no modern version of it.

I've tried posting to HN a few times but it hasn't gained traction for some reason, but I find it absolutely mind blowing.

I think if it's interesting to you then it's worth posting, and letting the voting system do it's thing. I only rarely post because by the time I've seen something it's usually already been posted
> but I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for HN

why even allow the cognitive overhead to worry about such a thing? it's not for you to decide anyway - let the users decide using the voting system that's built to task

Tbh this is exactly the sort of thing I'd come here to see
Recently I saw a post about Bonsai trees on the front page. Making your own RAM is 100% more relevant to HN than quite a few posts I see on the main page.
You’re not sure if someone building a RAM clean room in a shed is appropriate for HackerNews, literally “news for nerds”? A dictionary purchase may be warranted
Yeah we need 20 more LLM submissions instead, that's the hard hitting content. /s

  1999. We will have flying cars
  2024. LLMs - there will be robots
  2026. How to make your own RAM
2027. Upgrade your LLM with home made RAM so you can afford to have it design your flying car

    2028. How to forage for edible plants and identify safe water sources
    2030. How to make horseshoes, nails, and plate armor
    2032. How to send smoke signals to neighboring villages
    2034. How to defend against barbarian incursions
2030. All flying cars are actually armed drones - homefab is outlawed
2027. Just-in-time built software and hardware.
I'm not sure this is what they meant when they said they wanted to bring manufacturing back to the USA lol
Jokes aside, seeing as this person has created their own clean room in a shed, and is making RAM, what exactly is stopping any company from doing this themselves and breaking into the RAM business?

I'd pay less for RAM that wasn't "certified" in some official way, at least it works.

Chairman Trump will have a semiconductor furnace in every backyard.
The US version of The Great Leap Forward
So, I get that we charge the capacitor up, and that it leaks so we must recharge it periodically. I don't get two things:

1. How is the value read? Is it reading the leak?

2. How is recharging done? I guess the leak itself (assuming my guess in 1. holds) could provide charge for some logic that checks "if has charge then recharge else nop".

I still don't really get transistors :P, but this was cool.

"There is no DownloadMoreRAM, it's just some guy in a backyard shed."

https://downloadmoreram.com/

This guy is proof that newcomers to YouTube can still succeed, if they find the right niche.
Backyard semiconductor production is pretty similar to backyard barbecue. Lots of heating, smoking (diffusion), injecting (ion implant), and layering..
It appears that the creator built a setup inspired by HackerFab, which is a collection of open source tools and resources for chip manufacturing. It's a fantastic project, and I recommend people check it out:

https://docs.hackerfab.org/home

Technologies that were considered "high-tech" 20-30 years ago are now accessible to regular people. Making DRAM. I remember a video recently of a guy making his own floppy disks. Next I expect people to manufacture integrated circuits that have been discontinued. Like the Z80
Nobody tell openai about this, they’ll buy up all his stock
We need to be able to make semiconductors at home for computing freedom to be preserved the way the world is going.
I wasn't expecting what the inside of the shed would be like!
This is incredible! 1100 degrees in your backyard shed! And the video explains it well too
This is fascinating, but it really highlights how insane modern hardware manufacturing has become.

Would be interesting to know where the biggest bottleneck shows up first: materials, lithography, or error rates?

Good video, informative, easy to digest. You should start your own company, perhaps as in the form of an employee-owned entity or using Kickstarter to create an all-in-one RAM Fab kit that can be sold online. I'm sure the maker community may consider buying it.
Mom: We have RAM at home!

RAM at home:

Incredible video! I've been in tech for 20 years but never really bothered to dive in to the process of making RAM. This is eye-opening and makes me appreciate the sophistication of the tech involved in making those ram-sticks.
I think I’ve seen a similar video where the person was explaining how to increase your RAM on your android device. I don’t know if it’s possible. I personally never tried it. has anyone tried it before?
Subscribed. Genuinely looking forward to what this gent gets up to.
You're telling me we can free download more RAM now?
Considering how AI companies and older hardware manufacturing companies are driving up the RAM prices - thus, milking all of us ultimately - I think 3D printing needs to become the new default. And affordable too, eventually (it already is, for cheap things, e. g. plastics or PLA based printing, this is often much cheaper than ordering this from a company, but I mean with regards to computer systems too. Naturally right now we are far away from the nanoscale here, but I see this simply as a situation that will change eventually, given enough time).

Those AI companies and hardware manufacturers lost all right to further dictate and increase prices. Capitalism does not work as de-facto blackmail monopoly - or should not. If a state fails to protect the people, such as in the USA right now under the orange king, then the people need to insist on change. ALL steps against this tyranny from a few superrich needs to end.

Right now the legislation is going in the way how lobbyists want this, e. g. trying to make 3D printing illegal, but I think technology will obsolete such illegal laws eventually. Tyranny will eventually fail.

Spoiler: we never actually get to see the RAM tested
Great video, very much has NileRed vibes.
Oh man my shed could never be this clean
A was waiting for the part where he slides his little wafer chip into an ASML High NA EUV...
That's not a lab assistant, looks more like a poodle
I always dreamed about this when i was a child
literally tackling the RAM problem bit by bit
"Mom can we get some RAM?" "No dear, we have RAM at home." RAM at home...
nowadays, we need cheap ram solutions :')
such good idea ( so called home made )
This is cool.
I only buy free-range artisanal DRAM at the DRAM farmer's market.