How the CPUs are actually made

A processor has millions of transistors. Does the position of everyone is planned ?
At microscope, they look like some sort of procedurally generated ner.
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~ehwang/courses/cs120a/transistor.pdf

How do engineers work at such a scale ?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+are+cpus+made&oq=how+are+cpus+made&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61.4948j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

All the infos suggest that they design all the circuitry. I guess that they have real giant templates to fit 2 millions of transistors in there. Sounds like something impossible for the human being.

Secondly, Intel infos on Core i7 production look differently than others. Making a paralel to Blender modelling, it seems that the production of a processor is an z only extrusion. However, on microscope images it seems that the layers of circuits have space under them. Think of this like of a height map. How do they make gaps under wires, to make that complex circuitry ?

the next step is this- http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/11/hp-the-machine/

There are different schools of thought in electrical design much the same as there are different workflows here. But like making a scene you (tend) to start with the big picture and work your way down to the details. In electronics design It is much the same way. Rather then think of it on a component by component level Many engineers focus on the how they want the data to be manipulated then design the supporting circuitry from there. And all of the components that are put on one microchip could also be built out of other digital chips and assembled together on a circuit board or as my instructor said and then had tasked the class to prove prove it, There is no logic gate or digital circuit that you can not build out of 7400’s (2 input nand gates). As such cpu design is still digital circuit.

I am shakey in micro-architectural design, I do have my engineering degree but most of my career has been as a troubleshooter and working on avionics/radar systems.

If you want a taste of circuit design https://www.circuitlab.com/ is not a ‘bad’ program to play with. Although personally I would suggest a proto-board and finding some projects to build. tesla coils and radio projects are nice for that…and read up on electrical safety as well. Don’t want to kill yourself by becoming part of the circuit. Not that I speak from personal experience or anything