10nm? 7nm? Who cares? Intel may be trying to ditch chip technology definitions

Chip vendors including AMD and Intel have for years defined a chip by a nanometer measurement such as 14nm or 10nm, which also described the manufacturing process of a chip. Such “nm” designations used to be nearly as important as clock speed, power, or any of the other various metrics of a chip. Intel, however, may be preparing to de-emphasize it entirely.

What does “nanometer” mean in semiconductor manufacturing? “Nanometers” refer to the size of the individual transistors inside the chip. The smaller the transistor, the more dense the chip. Smaller transistors also imply that chips can be run at faster speeds, at lower power, or some combination of the two. Chipmakers use terms like “10nm” and 7nm” to describe the manufacturing process technology used to make these transistors, and this terminology has become widely adopted to indicate what’s leading-edge, and what isn’t.

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from PCWorld https://ift.tt/3cALueP