The chip masters.

Rio Rancho, New Mexico--Thirteen hundred men and women are suiting up in astronautlike gear. They slip on white Gore-Tex suits and pull on hoods, goggles, boots, and gloves. After walking through "air showers," where blasts of air remove dust particles from their clothing, the team is ready for work.

Are they preparing to perform alien autopsies? Are they shooting scenes for Apollo 13, Part II?

No. These people are the technicians who make the latest computer and video-game "brains"--Intel Pentium chips. These computer chips make video games and other computer programs run faster, with more intense graphics than ever before.

CIRCUIT MAKERS

Intel technicians are high-tech electrical engineers. When they make Pentium chips, they're building tiny interconnected electrical circuits--pathways through which electricity, a stream of electrons, can flow.

Because the circuits the Intel workers build are so small, even tiny specks of dust can cause trouble. "That's why Intel technicians dress up like astronauts and make the chips in a `clean room,' a super-clean environment," says John Thompson, a spokesperson for Intel. Impurities like dust can cover and block the tiny electrical circuits, he says.

In the computer world, blocked circuits are bad news. That's because all the functions a computer performs--from adding and multiplying to recreating road scenes in the most complex computer games--depend on the flow of electricity. The specific function a computer performs at any one time depends on which circuits are on or off.

ON-OFF CODE

In order for your computer to understand which circuits should be on or off, every instruction you give must be translated into binary code. Binary code is a number system that uses only two numbers--0 and 1.

Each binary digit, or bit, operates a tiny electronic switch on a computer-chip circuit. "One" switches the current on, while "zero" switches the current off.

Whenever you move your joystick, or type something on your keyboard, you are sending your computer instructions in binary code. That's because each key and position of the joystick has a binary-code "address."

"So every instruction you give the computer leads to a different set of switches firing on and off in a particular sequence," says Intel's Thompson. When your monitor receives the proper instructions from the computer's chip, your flight simulator takes off or your car races down the track.

SMALL SIZE EQUALS SPEED

All these steps occur at great speeds. Today's 32-bit Intel chips can process 32 binary digits at a time. On some computers, they process these 32-bit chunks of information 250 million times each second.

That's a big difference from computers of the 1960s and 1970s. The first personal computers could process only 8 bits of binary information at a time, 4.77 million times per second. That's why the earliest computer games such as Pac Man, ran so much slower than today's games. "And the graphics were less detailed and realistic," says Intel's George Iwaszek.

The main reason for the difference in speed is the size of the circuits. In the very earliest computers" built in the 1940s, technicians constructed large circuits with bulky switches in glass cylinders and miles of wires. A single computer could fill a room (see p. 22). These "primitive" circuits used a lot of electricity and overheated quickly.

The materials Intel technicians use now enable them to build much smaller electrical circuits. "We use thin slices of the element silicon," says Thompson.

Silicon is a semiconductor, a material that allows electric current to flow through it only sometimes. "We treat the silicon with silicon dioxide," says Iwaszek. "This chemical blocks the flow of electrons in certain areas on the silicon." The remaining areas, where electricity can flow, become the pathways of the electrical circuits. Other chemicals form switches to turn the circuits on and off.

The closer together you "etch" these pathways, the smaller you can make the circuits. You can fit circuits with millions of switches on a single chip, Thompson says.

These smaller chips are faster because electricity doesn't have to travel as far from one switch to the next, Thompson explains. Also, it takes less electric current to turn these tiny circuits on and off. The result: Your video games use less power, they run faster, and the graphics are sharper.

So, what's next in the high-tech world of computer chips? The dust-free circuit builders at Intel are working to bring an even faster chip to the market within a few years, says Howard High, an Intel spokesperson. This "Pentium Pro" chip will be twice as fast as the 32-bit Pentium chip. That means you can expect more new video games with even flashier graphics, faster animation, and out-of-this-world sound.

RELATED ARTICLE: TOTALLY COOL CAREER

Cheryl L. Shavers builds the circuits in computer chips

"Without microchips, you coldn't play video games or communicate with your friend on the Internet," says Cheryl L. Shavers became a chip maker because she loves science. "When I was in school, my favorite subjects were physics and chemistry," she says. "I believed that if I could understand the laws of science I could understand the laws of science I could succeed at almost anything."

For more about careers in technology, write:

Christopher Currie Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 1828 L St. NW, Suite 1202 Washington, D.C. 20036

Or visit Intel's Internet homepage at http://www.Intel.com