[baybal2]

>I suspect knowing the fundamentals gets you pretty far,

Not much further than eighties, and you are not getting anything done with seventies era ICs.

I'd say. After seventies, most of academic research gets almost wholly separate from the fab floor, and of course fab owners and equipment makers keep to their valuable secrets.

At TSMC, the EUV workgroup, for example, is a very select cohort of people with 10+ years at the company, with posted security bonds, screened for loyalty, and signed an omerta style NDA.

[MrEldritch]

...considering just how much got done with, say, the 6502, saying you're not getting anything done with 70s-era ICs is patently ludicrous. 70s-era microprocessors brought us the home computer revolution.