Nowadays there is tough competition in everything, new updates, products are coming every day and the race for staying the latest one is in pace now. Heading towards the post, you might have heard the 10nm fabrication process used processors, 7nm farication used processors. But what is the difference? Is smaller fabrication process size the better is processor performance? I’ll try to explain in simple way as I can. Follow the post to know, 7nm vs 10nm processors Which is better and how?
The Size:
The size or process of processor is defined by which fabrication is used for manufacturing. This is how the chips are made, not how it performs or what it can do. The size is measured in nano meters (nm). So this describes the smallest possible element size of the processor being manufactured.
So the smaller the transistors can be made it can be placed in a smallest possible physical space. The smaller fabrication process greater the resolution can be obtained. As the every thing has some benefits and downsides, this one also has the benefits and some disadvantages. So the smaller the required space the better is the processor? let’s find out.
Smaller the Better?
The processors contains transistors, they turn ON and OFF all the time during their operation. So the lower capacitance will be available when manufactured on small size. Hence the smaller the size the transistors can be switched ON and OFF more quickly. The more quickly it switches ON and OFF the less is energy required. Which is also effectively responsible for running processors in fast speed.
So the less the energy used then the power consumption will be also less. The battery on the smartphone will be less drained as compared to bigger fabrication process (size). As in the processor manufacturing the processors are manufactured on silicon wafers which is circular in shape.
There are number of dies located on the circular wafers. The less the size more number of dies can be fitted. More number of dies then more number of processors can be manufactured. Hence the manufacturing efficiency, rate is increased. But for developing the new process the investment is more. But after the investment cost is recovered, the per-die cost will be reduced effectively. As we seen the Qualcomm’s 845 processor powered smartphones were of high prices when it was launched, but after the launch of 855 the prices dropped significantly.
So any disadvantages?
- Smaller the transistors they are hard to make, and may have impact on the clock speeds.
- Lower yield, the processors will not be fully functional which may cause to develop new process.
- Idle power consumption will increase.
- Smaller the transistor the greater is leakage, leakage indicates how much current allowance is done through the transistor in OFF position.
This was all about the 7nm vs 10nm processors. Obviously the performance boost have benn seen in 7nm processors compared to 10nm. But it will be interesting to see what’s next after the 7nm. If you like the post don’t forget to share it!!
