Analysis
Computer: The 6 major layers, the internet & the fate of Africa
By Elombah Michael

There are six major layers of the computer and the internet.
The production processes of the computer to give us the internet and the various companies responsible for products. Each of this production process is a trillion-dollar industry and major drivers of global economy from many fronts.
Internet According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, the internet adds $1.3 trillion to the global economy each year. This means that the average person gains about $1.50 per minute from the internet. Of course, the value of the internet will vary depending on how we use it.

The author, Michael Elombah
1. Wafer
In electronics, a wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon, used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells. The wafer serves as the substrate for microelectronic devices built in and upon the wafer.
The five steps of wafer forming are:
- Slicing
- Lapping
- Etching
- Polishing
- Cleaning and inspection.
2. Lithography
Lithography is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface.
A semiconductor lithography system undertakes a process whereby highly complex circuit patterns drawn on a photomask made of a large glass plate are reduced using ultra-high-performance lenses and exposed onto a silicon substrate known as a wafer.
This process is a very limited technological know how to a handful of companies. The most pronounced is a German company ASML Holding NV.
ASML Holding N.V. (commonly shortened to ASML, originally standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) is a Dutch multinational corporation founded in 1984. ASML specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips.
As of 2023 it is the largest supplier for the semiconductor industry and the sole supplier in the world of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines that are required to manufacture the most advanced chips.
As of March 2024, ASML was the most highly valued European tech company, with a market capitalization (market cap) of about US$397 billion.
3. Chips
The wafer serves as the substrate on which the chips are created. Chip creation involves several steps, including photolithography, etching, and doping, which are repeated multiple times to build up the complex structures of the chip. A computer chip is a tiny wafer of semiconducting material with an embedded electronic circuit.
It contains millions of microscopic electronic components called transistors that transmit data signals.
On a broader note, and a more complex conditions, an integrated circuit (IC) is an assembly of electronic components in which hundreds to millions of transistors, resistors, and capacitors are interconnected and built up on a thin substrate of semiconductor material (usually silicon) to form a small chip or wafer.
Leader by market share:
- TSMC (market cap 25.39 trillion USD).
- Global
- UMU
- SMIC
4. Processor
A processor is an integrated electronic circuit that performs the calculations that run a computer. A processor performs arithmetical, logical, input/output (I/O) and other basic instructions that are passed from an operating system (OS).
Most other processes are dependent on the operations of a processor.
- Processors manufacturers
- Intel
- Texas Instruments
- Qualcomm
- MediaTek
- Arm
- IBM
- Nvidia
- Renesas Electronics
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
- Apple
- VIA Technologies
- Broadcom
- Cyrix
- Ingenic Semiconductor
- Microchip Technology
- NXP
- Onsemi
- Samsung
- MaxLinear
Number 1 hit is NVIDIA Corp with a market cap of 2.81 trillion USD.
5. Computers OS
OS meaning Operating Systems that run on these computers.
Examples of operating systems are:
- Linux
- Android
- macOS
- Windows
- iOS
- Batch OS
- Chrome OS
- FreeBSD
- Multitasking OS
- Solaris
- MS-DOS
- Real-time operating system
Linux is the most widely used and it’s free. The most popular is Microsoft windows.
Microsoft market cap is 3.19 trillion USD.
6. Software
This is the most popular and generally used. We have a lot of software.
The number 1 is Google search engine. The parent company Alphabet Inc have a market cap of 2.14 trillion USD.
7. Computer is an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.
Some computer manufacturers include:
- Apple
- HP
- Acer
- Asus
- Dell
- Lenovo
- Microsoft
- Toshiba
- Fujioka
- IBM
- Samsung
- MSi
- ESS technology
- Foxconn (Founders: Terry Gou)
- GIGABYTE (Founders: Pei-Chen Yeh)
- Inventec
- Razer
- SONY
- Compal
Biggest and major types of computers
The biggest computer and smartphone (which are also computers and, in some cases, have more computing power) manufacturers is Apple, with a market cap of 3.35 trillion USD.
The major types of computers are:
- Mainframe
- Supercomputer
- Minicomputer
- Workstation
- Microcomputer
- Computer animation
- Analog computer
- Computer
- Laptop
- Server
- Tablet
- Handheld computers
- Smartphone
- Mistraló supercomputer
- Personal computer
- Hybrid computer
About personal computers and Mac
- Essential aspects of computers
The latest and the biggest computers is cloud providers which uses servers.
Big cloud servicing companies are:
- Amazon Web services AWS
- Microsoft Azure
- Google cloud platform GCP
- Oracle cloud
Oracle Corp market cap is 382.43 billion USD.
The big question is: “Where does Africa belong in this gigantic money-making machine?”
Elombah Michael is a digital economist.
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