The smaller, the better is an iron rule in the business of processors. But physics is slowly getting in the way of chip manufacturers.
Moore’s Law, which bears the name of Intel’s founder of the same name, is considered to be one of the core computer technology. There are some variations of the law, but most commonly it says that the speed of processors doubles every two years. This is mainly achieved by packing more and more transistors on a single chip.
This is where structural size comes into play, which has recently been expressed in nanometers (nm). This number indicates the distance between the individual transistors of a chip. If this is lower, the faster the electrons can travel between the transistors, and more transistors fit on a chip and less energy is needed. Therefore, the smaller the better.
Intel jammed at 14nm
Intel, the dominant manufacturer of chips for desktop computers, is currently building processors with a structural size of 14 nm, including the ninth generation of its main processors launched this week. Intel has been using the 14nm method since 2014 and therefore, of course, for much longer than the two years formulated in Moore’s law.
These are possible with current technology and can already be found on many smartphones like the iPhone X or the current Android flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S9. The iPhone XS is the first mass-market product to have a 7nm chip. However, Intel is currently unable to reconcile the complexity of an increasingly smaller structural size with the requirements of mass production.
Despite the current problems, Intel will also produce 10 nm chips in the near future, and currently has a target of 2019. But transistors cannot shrink forever. For example, a single silicon atom has a radius of 210 picometers or 0.21 nanometers. And a single atom does not make a transistor, of course. Therefore, the reduction in structural size by half will necessarily come to an end.
The solution: more cores?
Meanwhile, Intel has come up with a simple but not very innovative solution. The ninth generation i9 and i7 processors simply get more cores, both now have eight. The increase in space needed for desktops or even laptops is probably negligible, but smartphones will sooner or later reach their limits.
Although smartphone chips as described above still have a slight advantage at the moment, physics will soon arrive here as well. If Moore’s law is not going to disappear in the history books, then it really needs innovative ideas or the realization of a completely new technology like the quantum computer.