Generally speaking, the chip 14nm, 10nm, 7nm and 5nm refer to the process technology of the chip, that is, the transistor gate size on the surface of CPU and GPU. Generally speaking, the more advanced the process technology, the smaller the size of the transistor, so the more transistors can be accommodated on the surface of the chip with the same size, and the stronger the performance.
With the development of chip technology, the chip manufacturing process has been able to achieve 2nm, but this is the data in the laboratory, and the specific mass production process varies from country to country. At present, the most advanced mass production technology is 5nm, and TSMC and samsung galaxy in Taiwan Province, China have introduced relevant technologies, realizing mass production and shipment.
brief introduction
The fabrication process of the chip ranges from the initial 0.35 micron to 0.25 micron, and then to 0. 18 micron, 0. 13 micron, 90 nm, 65 nm, 45 nm, 32 nm and 14 nm. In the process of improving chip technology, it is necessary to reduce the geometric size and power consumption by about ten times to reach 10nm or even 7nm.
Theoretically, many factors play a role in this process. Taking 7nm as an example, smaller geometry means more transistors per square millimeter, which means higher density, clock, thermal design power consumption and lower transistor voltage.