Birth Of The Crafts-God

"While it's true that you considered the counter-reacting field problem when making your adjustments to the design, you also forgot about a very basic fact."

Lucas calmly spoke as he stared at the trio in front of him.

They expected him to continue but he didn't, resulting in the atmosphere becoming awkward.

Cayman was too proud to ask while Maessen was still considering whether he should act or not.

Seeing Lucas not speak even after a few more seconds had gone by, Weston couldn't hold it in and decided to break the ice.

"...what do you mean by that?"

Lucas glanced at him before speaking in an educating tone.

"The major difference between a regular processor and a stellar processor is that the latter included a section that works utilising stellar energy. Due to this, stellar processors are usually larger than regular processors. A single silicon wafer of about 300mm can be used to make 230 or more regular processors or 950 DRAM chips. But an appropriate material wafer of the same size can only make between 10-20 stellar processors, depending on the intended features."

Weston didn't refute that because it was true.

A regular processor only needed to have its main components such as the cores, memory controller, graphics processor, and so on, depending on its functions.

However, a stellar processor had two types of components: electrical-powered components and stellar-powered components. As a result of the differing components, a stellar processor would also have a third unit known as the control core, which was charged with taking the results from the two different components and combining them to produce a suitable result. This control core was actually the key factor in a stellar processor. As a result, the material used as well as the production technology were all confidential and different from each company.

Due to this, stellar processors were inevitably bigger than regular processors. However, in exchange for the drastic increase in size, they were even more powerful by a large margin when compared to regular processors.

"Because a stellar processor also utilises stellar energy for power and communication, there's the need for stellar energy conductors to be installed alongside an electrical conductor. However, the problem of a counter-reacting field makes this difficult. Hence, the type of conductors used, as well as the insulating and background materials, have to be carefully considered." Lucas explained.

At this point, both Cayman and Weston could see what Lucas was hinting at.

"You're saying the problem is from here?" Weston narrowed his eyes and asked.

Lucas nodded.

"It seems you aren't so lacking after all."

Weston's lips twitched and he prepared to retaliate but Cayman stretched out his hand and blocked him.

"It's easy to say the problem is at a particular juncture, but you've still failed to point out here exactly." Cayman glared at Lucas.

As a vestige-smith, he had run trial and errors with the various materials and already knew a lot about all their effects, reactions and so on. Cayman was confident that he wouldn't be making such a silly mistake as mixing two wrong materials together. Even until now, he believed that the material composition he used was good and there were no problems with it.

If so, then what was Lucas saying?

"Chromium is a good supporting template for the processor casing foundation. Since it's not so good at conducting electricity like silver or copper, there are lower chances of a proper electrical field being created by the spillover. This is further lowered by injecting an appropriate percentage of impurities into the substance via doping.

"Blue silver as the electrical node conductors is a very suitable option. Compared to regular silver, Blue silver has a better conductivity, plus it's been shown to work well even within close range of stellar energy exposure, so this lessens the risk of a counter-reacting field forming.

"I'm guessing you still followed the blueprint and went with Purple Iridium. Although it costs between 10,000 to 12,000 per ingot, one ingot is enough to produce 500 stellar processors, which brings the value of the Purple Iridium to 24 federal coins per chip, which is still cheap.

"For the electrical insulators, you didn't follow the original blueprint and went with a Silicon-On-Insulator technology, relying on the much cheaper and functional Silicon Dioxide to help protect against stellar radiation. For the stellar insulators, you retained the blueprint's instructions and used an Ivoric gold layer. The poly-dicroyl gantiuum alloy is then used for the control core.

"In summary, there is nothing wrong with your choice of materials." Lucas explained.

"But you said the problem is from the materials used. Get to the point." Cayman became grumpy.

"Nothing wrong with my statement." Lucas stared at him.

"Like I said, the problem exists within the material. However, the materials are all appropriate choices. Then where lies the fault? Naturally, it is in the production method of the materials."

Lucas then projected a schematic diagram of the processor for the group to see.

"Probably because you're not too familiar with the nature of poly-dicroyl gantiuum alloy and Purple Iridium, but there is a mistake you made in production. Poly-dicroyl gantiuum alloy is a suitable material for constructing a control core because it has a balanced conductivity for both stellar energy and electrical energy. However, thanks to the insulator layers and properly built transistor system, this isn't a problem. Basically the same as with other control cores. Purple Iridium is a good conductor of stellar energy, but it also has some unique qualities. Nonetheless, the Ivoric gold layer should have prevented any mishaps.

"However, you included chromium as the base component. I'm guessing you prepared the chromium by leaching high carbon ferrochrome with an acid to produce a rich chromium solution. Then you purified this and separated it using the electrolyte method. However, there was a slight error in your preparation cycle.

"The chromium was highly concentrated but it still contained some impurities but in minor steps. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. However, you doped the Chromium using Vanadium. The impurities noted in your chromium solution were unreactive oxygen."

Cayman and Weston froze, their eyes wide open.

"Th, this..." Weston didn't know what to say.

Chromium and Vanadium were poor conductors of electricity and heat, and not notable choices when compared to elements like copper and silver. However, Vanadium Oxide was a different case.

If Vanadium Oxide existed within the casing layer of the processor, it could tap into the

At room temperature, Vanadium Oxide (V2 0) was a poor conductor of electricity, but at a critical temperature of 68°C (152°F), it all changed.

"Still doesn't explain the case of corruption." Cayman refuted.

"Not only does Vanadium Oxide require such a high temperature to transform into a conductor, but we should have noticed its presence during our investigations."

"That's right." Weston recovered from his shock and agreed.

There was also the fact that even if Vanadium Oxide was present, there was no exposed electrical current for it to tap into and generate an electrical field that would interfere with the stellar energy.

"You're right." Lucas nodded. Then he maximised the projection and separated the diagram into layers.

In total, the Qin stellar processor had 83 layers: 36 Ivoric gold layers for the stellar energy section with Purple Iridium as the conductors; 36 Silicon Dioxide layers using Silicon-On-Insulator technology or SOI, with Blue Silver as the conductors; 10 poly-dicroyl gantiuum alloy layers that served as the control cores, and one Chromium layer at the base.

Right after the Chromium layer was an Ivoric gold layer, then an SOI layer. This repeated for a total of a total of seven times following which a double control core layer was inserted, then the arrangement would repeat itself. This 7-7-2 arrangement formed one main core. In total, there were five main cores. As for the last layer of Ivoric gold and SOI, it was placed above the final control core as shield layers. Both layers didn't have any conductors inserted within them and were simply just added for protection.

In the original blueprint, Lucas never included the base Chromium layer, but the Silverine Factory had other plans for the chip hence the recent addition. Also, the layer of SOI made with Silicon Dioxide was an SOS (Silicon-On-Sapphire) technology made using a Sapphire substrate. The final Ivoric gold and SOS layers weren't placed at the top as well. Only the Ivoric gold layer was placed at the top while the SOS layer was placed at the bottom as the base layer instead.

"In your design, the starting layer right after the Chromium layer still remains the Ivoric gold layer. Despite its name, Ivoric gold is actually an insulator of electricity, so logically, there should be no problems even if a Vanadium Oxide layer was suddenly formed right below it. But what about the Purple Iridium?" Lucas smiled strangely.

"It seems like you haven't researched much on Purple Iridium, but that's understandable since it isn't a common core component of stellar processors.

"Purple Iridium is a good conductor of stellar energy, but it is also highly reactive with a certain chemical alloy. Can you guess what that is?"

Not giving them a chance to answer, Lucas continued,

"Well, it isn't Vanadium Oxide. You see, when you tested the processor at peak performance for a long runtime, the generated heat from the chip reactivated the unreactive oxygen molecules that were hidden inside the Chromium layer. These molecules reacted with the Vanadium atoms to form Vanadium Oxide.

"Nonetheless, the temperature was still too low to form a conductive Vanadium Oxide. At peak performance, the temperature of the Qin generally doesn't exceed 46°C or 114.8° F. After hours of longtime, it would halt at 52°C or 125.6°F. That's still far from the 68°C requirement for Vanadium Oxide to become a conductor. However, it is enough to force a reaction between Vanadium Oxide and Purple Iridium."