Re:TSMC and Graphcore Prepare for AI Acceleration on 3nm
by variaga on Thursday August 27, 2020 @05:13PM
(#24298725)
TSMC's 5nm 'N5' process -the highest density process currently shipping- has a raw transistor density of 173 million per millimeter^2. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_nm_process)
If the transistors were laid out on a square grid (they aren't - it's rectangular), each square would be 76nm on a side. This area includes the transistor itself, the contact area (to connect the transistor to wires) and the required spacing to prevent the transistors from interfering with each other.
Does this mean there’s actually a lot more room to shrink things?