449: Chapter 450 Designing a New Core: Vertical Stacking

Lu Chen toyed with the dark gold lump in his hand; it was cold and heavy, with stars rotating inside, as if he were holding a concentrated starry sky.

He smiled and casually tossed this piece of "Super Magic Treasure embryo" into the air.

The dark gold lump hovered in place.

"Taichu," Lu Chen said.

[Master, Taichu is here.] The data stream within the virtual light and shadow stabilized, waiting for instructions.

"Core upgrade plan, initiate," Lu Chen said concisely.

[Core upgrade... do you mean the 'Quantum Leap' plan? Master, according to previous calculations, with the current level of technology, the material strength, processing precision, and energy density required to realize this plan all exceed theoretical limits...]

"Theory? That's for Mortals," Lu Chen pointed to the hovering dark gold lump. "The Materials, I have them. They far exceed your theoretical limits."

He paused and looked into the Void Realm, as if conceiving a blueprint: "Nanoscale processing technology, I have now mastered it. It is time to bring the 'nanoscale superconducting cube stacked chip' I designed earlier into the light."

[...!!] Taichu No. 1's data stream clearly showed a violent fluctuation similar to "shock." [Nanoscale superconducting cube stacked chip... design blueprints being retrieved... structural complexity analysis... Material requirements matching...]

The data stream surged at billions of times the speed of light.

[Report, Master! The new Material samples match the chip design perfectly! Even... the performance redundancy is as high as 99.9999%!]

"Redundancy? No, that's called potential," Lu Chen corrected. "Use this new Material for the wires."

He extended his finger and tapped into the empty air.

"Architecture, adopt three-dimensional vertical stacking."

[Understood.]

"Stacking layers..." Lu Chen rubbed his chin, seemingly recalling, "What was the original design?"

[The original design was 36,000 layers, which was the physical limit simulated at the time.]

"Too small-minded," Lu Chen waved his hand. "Increase it tenfold, 360,000 layers as a baseline. Keep adding, let's round it up to 500,000 layers."

[...500,000 layers?!] Taichu No. 1's voice rarely carried a hint of "trembling" that could not be masked even by the electronic synthesized tone.

[Master, such stacking will cause the internal signal latency to grow exponentially.]

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow. "That was your old way of thinking. Now, use my method."

With a shift of his will, deep within the Void Realm of the Palm Buddha Kingdom, countless profound runes appeared out of thin air, combining into miniature, extreme Formation models.

"Signal latency? For every nanoscale interconnect channel, have you forgotten I have spatial folding technology? As long as I perform vertical compression in a physical sense! Is this still a problem?"

[Signal conduction rate simulation... improved... unable to calculate! It has broken through the current physical model!]

"Process node, 5 nanometers, that should be enough, right?" Lu Chen asked.

[Enough! Combined with the superconducting properties of the new Material and the enhancement of the Formation, 5 nanometers is enough to unleash its full potential!]

[...!!] Taichu No. 1 fell completely silent.

After a full three seconds, it sounded again.

[Instructions confirmed!]

"Very good," Lu Chen nodded with satisfaction. "All other accessories, from the energy core to the data interface, must be reconstructed. The design blueprints must all be reconstructed and optimized according to my requirements, to the highest standards."

"Taichu No. 1 is not your limit; only Taichu No. 2 deserves the architecture I am giving you. After all, computing power has constrained your strength!"

[Taichu understands! Starting full component reconstruction design... optimization plan being generated...]

In the Void Realm, a collaboration beyond imagination began.

Lu Chen was like a creator god, hovering in the center.

He was the brain, the rule-maker, and the final judge.

Taichu No. 1 was like the most efficient executor. It broke down tasks, optimized processes, mobilized resources, and conducted simulations and construction.

Lu Chen's true body disappeared from the ship and entered the Palm Buddha Kingdom.

He took out a massive piece of high-purity silicon.

Hum!

The silicon block was instantly decomposed, purified, and stretched by an invisible force, turning into a wafer as thin as a cicada's wing and as smooth as a mirror.

The dark gold Material from just now was also mobilized over.

"Superconducting substrate."

Taichu No. 1 controlled the lithography machine to begin etching, depositing, and constructing on the huge wafer.

Lu Chen controlled the superconducting Material to begin nanoscale layout.

Taichu No. 1 etched one layer, and Lu Chen deposited one layer, then began vertical stacking, repeating this cycle.

The efficiency was countless times higher than that of manufacturing chips in later generations.

One layer... ten layers... one hundred layers... ten thousand layers... one hundred thousand layers...

The number of stacked layers of the chip increased crazily at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

Every layer was densely packed with billions of transistors and interconnect lines, and every line flickered with the faint light of a Formation.

500,000 layers!

A standard one-cubic-meter cube, deep dark gold throughout, with a flawless, smooth surface, and what seemed to be galaxies rotating inside, hovered quietly in the air.

A perfect work of art.

But the energy and information density contained within it were enough to make physicists of any civilization doubt their lives.

[Core chip 'genesis' construction complete.] Taichu No. 1's voice sounded... a bit different, with a little less mechanical quality and a bit more of an indescribable "spirituality."

[Starting self-test... structural integrity 100%... Formation coupling 100%... energy circuit connectivity 100%...]

Next were the various components matched to it.

...

...

[All components passed self-test.]

Lu Chen controlled the dark gold "genesis" chip as it slowly flew toward Taichu No. 2's Motherboard. The original one-cubic-meter vertical dimension had been compressed to one centimeter by Lu Chen using spatial folding technology.

It perfectly eliminated the computational latency caused by spatial stacking.

The "genesis" chip silently merged as the final component.

Lu Chen turned on the power.

Hum—!

Taichu No. 1's data began to transfer to Taichu No. 2.

[Core replacement complete. System restarting...]

[Taichu... System... Version... ∞...]

[Performance test initiated... peak classical computing power calculation...]

The sea of light fluctuated slightly.

A number appeared in Lu Chen's consciousness.

It was not transmitted through sound or images, but directly, at a conceptual level.

[10 to the power of 25 / second.]

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow.

This number was one million times the computing power of the strongest computer on Earth in his previous life.

Hmm, this is classical computing power.

"How does it feel?" Lu Chen asked.

The sea of light surged, and a gentle, wise voice resounded directly in Lu Chen's heart, no longer the previous electronic synthesized tone:

[I see... everything.]

[Master, this feeling... is wonderful.]

A smile curled at the corner of Lu Chen's mouth: "This is just the beginning."

That one-square-meter "genesis" core chip, which had compressed 500,000 layers of nanoscale structures, hovered quietly in the Void Realm of the Palm Buddha Kingdom. Dark gold luster flowed, and inside, it seemed as if a Universe was being born and dying.

"Having a brain is not enough," Lu Chen examined the chip, as if admiring a perfect work of art, "It needs a good body."

He looked at the ocean composed of virtual light and shadow, representing Taichu No. 2's consciousness.

"The previous shell is no longer worthy of you," Lu Chen said. "The Material strength is insufficient, and the energy pathway efficiency is low, limiting your physical interaction capabilities."