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There is a lot of density that can be increased. The node size doesn't represent transistor size, not even the gate size.
by ivalm 7y ago
There is a lot of density that can be increased. The node size doesn't represent transistor size, not even the gate size.
- vasili111 7y agoWhat is the theoretical limit? I mean there should be end.
- umvi 7y agoWell, the diameter of a silicon atom is 0.2nm, so I would guess it's at least that with silicon-based computers.
- londons_explore 7y agoNot necessaraly. The node size represents the equivalent 'gate' size of a standard transistor with similar performance characteristics. By using better transistor designs, you can make the effective gate size much smaller than the actual gate size.
- 6nf 7y agoYou can't make features smaller than one atom though, and silicon atoms in a crystal matrix are about 0.5nm apart.
- pas 7y agoThe limit of information density is known as the Bekenstein bound. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound It is derived through quantum mechanics and via the Plank constants and black hole physics. Basically any more information squeezed together would turn into a black hole. Though ordinary (non quantum) thermodynamics limits information density well before this bound. As to what happens in the next decades with the good old Silicon stuff. Well, nobody knows just yet, but 3nm is what anyone realistically talks about, and just sci-fi tech after that.
- ivalm 7y agoCurrent density is ~100M (1E8) transistors/mm^2, Assuming transistors with a side of ~10 atoms (and bond length 0.5nm) that means we could get ~4E12 transistors/mm^2. This is almost certainly over optimistic but still it shows that we are orders of magnitude away from limits due to "atomic nature" of matter.
- ComputerGuru 7y agoI think you first need to switch to transistors/nm^3 rather than thinking only in 2d.
- ivalm 7y agoRight now these are planar devices. If you stack you can get orders of magnitude more. That's why you can get absurd memory capacities in things like nitrogen defect diamonds [0]. [0] https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/10/e1600911.full https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/10/e1600911.full
- sixplusone 7y agowouldn't that become a heat dissipation issue?
- ivalm 7y agoIf you need to move charge then you get nasty joule heating, but if you only move spin density then this causes almost no heating (that's the promise of spintronics)