Simulation shows what a computer chip looks like up close as a real microscope can't display it effectively
Published on Dec 31, 2025 at 9:39 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Dec 31, 2025 at 4:06 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
If you ever wondered what a computer chip looked like up close – like, under-a-microscope close – then this simulation is here to put your mind at ease.
In real life, the finer details of a chip are so small that a microscope can’t see them.
The clip got shared to Reddit, where it blew people’s minds.
We never would put ‘computer chip’ and ‘simplistic’ in the same sentence, but we had no idea they were this intricate.
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This simulation showed us what a computer chip looks like up close
Reddit user itshazrd shared the clip to a subreddit aptly called ‘nextf***inglevel’.
“This is a digital recreation, a real microscope can’t be used because it gets so small that photons can’t give you a good enough resolution to view the structures at the bottom,” he wrote.
“You’d need an electron microscope.”
What it a computer chip looks like up close
byu/itshazrd innextfuckinglevel
It feels like an endless cycle, and it’s pretty mind-blowing.
People on Reddit were left floored by it.
“To think some people have engineered this is insane to me,” one user wrote.
“Needless to say, we sure have come a long way from fire and stone,” another commented.
“I can’t wrap my head around how mankind managed to design and create this,” a third said.
It is pretty remarkable.
Chips are used for a lot of incredible things nowadays
Computer chips were invented back in 1958 by Jack Kilby, who built the world’s first working prototype.
The first one made for mass production would come the following year from Robert Noyce.
In the sixty-plus years since, a lot has been done with these remarkable tiny things.
Chips are now being developed by Volkswagen for automated driving.
Over at Apple, the A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 is capable of incredible things when compared to high-end gaming PCs.
And how we could talk about chips without sparing a few words for Neuralink?
Neuralink’s implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have been around since 2016.
The smart tech company’s goal was to create chips to help people living with life-altering diseases, such as ALS, as well as those with spinal cord injuries.
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