Quote from: mdude77 on September 24, 2017, 09:00:51 PM

Quote from: castiel0504 on September 24, 2017, 08:25:44 PM

This is all new with me, but what number of chips has to do with ASIC's speed? Using logic bigger is better, shouldn't be 16nm chips be faster then 7nm? Or is not? Can you please elaborate?

These numerical values refer to the manufacturing "size" of the wafers used in the chips. Not the quantity.

Generally smaller is better, as they are more efficient, use less electricity, generate less heat, and so on.

M

That's Not quite right. The 16nm, 10nm, and 7nm refer to the minimum feature size of a die (what eventually becomes a chip). There is also the size of the silicon wafer (what the die are "printed" on). The standard wafer is now typically 300mm diameter, but there is movement towards 450mm diameter wafers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer_(electronics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication

You are correct about smaller being better. Other reasons that smaller is better is that the signal paths are shorter, which means faster. The use of lower voltages and currents usually means lower levels of heat generated, but the smaller feature sizes allows the manufacturers to cram more transistors/gates onto a die of any given size, thus increasing the current draw, and thus the heat dissipated.