3 ms·
These things aren't _really_ two-dimensional. They're not really three-dimensional either, but they are objects built out of layers of two-dimensional things.
by coherentpony 6y ago
These things aren't _really_ two-dimensional. They're not really three-dimensional either, but they are objects built out of layers of two-dimensional things. When you measure number of transistors per unit area you will inevitably see something more dense than the "number of 5nm square in a millimeter of area".
It's the silicon equivalent of measuring one's BMI.
- hinkley 6y agoVideo games used to call their pseudo-3d display 2.5D, or if they were feeling fancy, isomorphic. There is a little freedom in the Z axis, but not very much. But if speed of light matters to performance, then a chip design that increases the z axis decreases the euclidean distance between any two gates, which should (or at least could) matter to performance, right?
- coherentpony 6y agoUltimately it depends on the design but you're basically right, yes.
- Dylan16807 6y ago> But if speed of light matters to performance It barely matters. Gate delays and thermal limits outweigh distance by a huge factor. If you need to go further distances then you can wait one cycle and cover a relatively huge length.
- hinkley 6y ago> you can wait one cycle and cover a relatively huge length. At the cost of increasing pipeline depth, right? We've been wrestling with that forever.
- Dylan16807 6y agoI would expect your pipeline steps to be far smaller than this scale. We've been wrestling with the number of pipeline stages vs. the number of transistors in the critical path forever. Not so much physical distance.