algernon132 t1_j426yyd wrote
Reply to comment by KungFuHamster in Intel breaks the 6GHz barrier with $699 Core i9-13900KS processor by Avieshek
Actual transistor sizes have hardly gone down in years now
oneplusetoipi t1_j42cw31 wrote
This is incorrect. It is not scaling like the name suggests but they are definitely getting measurably smaller.
https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/logic/l_5nm
In fact, in order to “print” a transistor requires extreme UV light so that the wavelength is small enough that the fringing effects do not ruin the outline of the printed structure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography
It is very expensive and requires a lot of maintenance.
The smallest patterning is used for the transistors and the lowest metal layers. The higher metal layers still use regular UV optical pattern printing.
throwaway1point1 t1_j42w8pq wrote
The size of the transistor has gone down, helping efficiency, heat, etc, allowing higher clocks.
But they can't put them much closer like previous node advances.
algernon132 t1_j42wq2p wrote
Gotcha, thank you. I mistook gate pitch for transistor size.
5kyl3r t1_j42f646 wrote
well we're down to what 2 nanometer now? a single atom is 0.1 - 0.5 nanometers, so we're nearly down to the size of individual atoms lol. not sure what'll happen after that
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