On Sat, 6/20/2026 10:36 PM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

Why is the manufacturing of computer chips also called "fabrication"?

Is it a dirty ulgy little tick to joke about the legal meaning of "fabrication"?

FABRICATION in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/fabrication>

* the act of producing a product, especially in
ÿ an industrial process

* the act of inventing false information in order
ÿ to deceive someone, or the false information itself

It takes *12 weeks* to make one of those.

If there is an earthquake while the process is running,
then 12 weeks worth of product can go into the garbage.
A wafer boat which is in transit in a robotic carrier,
that could be saved. And if one wafer is worth $10K-$20K,
and there are a dozen wafers in the carrier, that's worth
saving. The automation knows what steps the wafer has been
through. A lot of the machines, will have high vacuum inside
them while the process step runs (all the room air has to be
purged inside a machine, before a process step starts).

But if a wafer was in a sputtering machine, or some sort of
doping process was being carried out, and there was an earthquake,
the wafer is most likely spoiled and cannot be trusted by
"just doing half a doping process". The process steps are
considered un-stoppable, because you would not be delivering
a precise reproduction of the behavior of the machines, if
you stopped and started them again.

The material is deposited in layers. It's just like building a house.

The fab building is vibration-isolated. Ours had "bags" of some sort
underneath the building. And what those would suppress, was vibration
from passing traffic. You couldn't feel any vibration in the
building. I think someone had to go underneath the building and
check on those, once in a while. The building was far enough from
a local stream, that flooding did not make its way to the
building foundation. And no, the building does not wobble
or "shake like jelly". There is no sign that there is a
suspension system.

But when there is an earthquake, the bags underneath the building
would eventually transmit the earthquake energy into a shaking
of the building. And then the wafers inside process machines are ruined.
And likely with our clumsy staff, the odd bottle of reagent grade
chemicals would be dropped on the floor. The building was evacuated
a couple times, because of broken solvent bottles.

The process also uses two poison gases (Phosphine (PH3) and arsine (AsH3)),
so the plant has poison gas detectors. As some kind of joke,
I was in an office area, when two guys walked diagonally through the
room (a "shortcut") while they were wearing their Scott air packs.
This was intended to leave the impression that any employees in the
room were "canaries" suited to testing for any poison gas :-)
No matter where you work, there are always asshole practical jokers.
You're supposed to take your mask off, if you're not using it.

In another building (an even smaller fab on site), I was having
a beer with someone from Health & Safety, and she tells me
that after all these years, she has just installed poison gas
detectors in my building. What a relief! It's good to know
I was in good hands for all the years those detectors weren't there.

A fab then, is a place filled with fun and merriment.

It is a place where people work, and in its way, kinda boring.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 6/21/2026 12:04 AM, Paul in Houston TX wrote:

Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

Why is the manufacturing of computer chips also called "fabrication"?

Is it a dirty ulgy little tick to joke about the legal meaning of "fabrication"?

FABRICATION in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary
<https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/fabrication>

* the act of producing a product, especially in
ÿÿ an industrial process

* the act of inventing false information in order
ÿÿ to deceive someone, or the false information itself

My "guess" is that fabrication probably refers to root word "fabric", so fabrication would be making something intricate and complex from a simple but very small starting point. i.e: silk thread.

You might also notice they use that in the naming of the buildings.
Such as "FAB43".

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 6/21/2026 8:16 PM, Paul wrote:

You might also notice they use that in the naming of the buildings.
Such as "FAB43".

Not answering the question.

Why add an extra meaning to the word "fabrication" in the name of
information technology?

Why not a new word? :)

Because some countries have lots of great weapons? Dark magic?
Super-duper Johm Smith the Matrix kind of thing? Well...

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 20:33:56 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 6/21/2026 8:16 PM, Paul wrote:

You might also notice they use that in the naming of the buildings.
Such as "FAB43".

Not answering the question.

Why add an extra meaning to the word "fabrication" in the name of information technology?

Why not a new word? :)

Because some countries have lots of great weapons? Dark magic?
Super-duper Johm Smith the Matrix kind of thing? Well...

Language evolves over time.

Current English is almost (if not all) completely different than the
original Engligh - i.e. Old English.

I'm pretty sure majority of current English speaking people, can't
understand Old English.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 6/22/2026 6:39 PM, JJ wrote:

Language evolves over time.

Current English is almost (if not all) completely different than the
original Engligh - i.e. Old English.

I'm pretty sure majority of current English speaking people, can't
understand Old English.

I don't mind the courage and might to modify English dictionaries.
But... BUT.... it should be done wisely with wisdom and vision.

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 6/22/2026 7:20 AM, Andy Burns wrote:

Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

I don't mind the courage and might to modify English dictionaries.
But... BUT.... it should be done wisely with wisdom and vision.

English dictionaries don't prescribe how you should speak the language,
they document how people do speak it.

Compare that to the Acad‚mie Fran‡aise, who at least *think* they tell people how to speak French :-)

Originally English dictionaries were in fact
"prescriptive", guiding users to the proper
spelling and definitions of words. Only in
more recent decades did many switch to becoming
"descriptive" and thereby giving credence to
erroneous words and definitions, such as the
non-existent "proactive" that was invented by
people who didn't remember that opposite of
"reactive" is simply "active", or any number
of non-existent verbs that were back-constructed
from nouns by the ignorant, such as "conversate"
(instead of the correct "converse"). As for
"fabrication", it basically refers to the
creation or construction of something, whether
physical (chips, buildings) or intangible
(misinformation), though in the latter it has
[also] taken the form of the noun describing
the result of the action.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 6/22/2026 8:29 PM, David Samuel Barr wrote:

(instead of the correct "converse"). As for
"fabrication", it basically refers to the
creation or construction of something, whether
physical (chips, buildings) or intangible
(misinformation), though in the latter it has
[also] taken the form of the noun describing
the result of the action.

Because of the "root" of the word is "fabric"? "cloth or material" are physical, are NOT intangible. They are NOT fairy tale creatures!!

FABRIC in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/fabric?

cloth or material for making clothes, covering furniture, etc.

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 06/22/2026 9:38 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 6/22/2026 8:29 PM, David Samuel Barr wrote:

(instead of the correct "converse"). As for
"fabrication", it basically refers to the
creation or construction of something, whether
physical (chips, buildings) or intangible
(misinformation), though in the latter it has
[also] taken the form of the noun describing
the result of the action.

Because of the "root" of the word is "fabric"? "cloth or material" are physical, are NOT intangible. They are NOT fairy tale creatures!!

FABRIC in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese- traditional/fabric?

cloth or material for making clothes, covering furniture, etc.

Those types of responses might remind some to paraphrase Ming's(the
Merciless) comment to Klytus's after his men/guards failed to defeat and capture Flash.

--
...w­¤?ñ?¤

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.17
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)