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Tech Tip of the Week: How Small is 32 Nanometers?
Intel recently published a whitepaper with some amusing 32nm facts that we are reproducing here for you. If you have ever wondered how small the logic inside these chips really is in 'measurable' terms, here are some random facts to give you some perspective:
- A nanometer is so small that it takes a billion of them to make a meter. A billion is a huge number. A stack of a billion sheets of paper would be 100 km high. If you could walk a billion steps, you would go around the earth 20 times.
- A 32nm transistor can switch on and off over 300 billion times in one second. It would take you 4000 years to flick a light switch on and off that many times.
Continue reading our Tech Tip of the Week.
User Comments (19)
Post a comment|
Decimae
on February 24, 2010 9:20 AM |
They forgot too add the size of an atom! The size of an atom is averagely 0.25 nm, and wires consisting of atom are really hard to produce and the normal laws of resistance don't apply with those. If Moore's law is every two years the size of the transistor halves, and we assume we won't be able to make stable wires which are thinner than 4 atoms(which is likely) it won't apply in 2022. |
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TomSEA
on February 24, 2010 10:21 AM |
I love seeing stuff like this - taking measurements of one sort of the other and putting it into a perspective anyone can understand. Amazing.... |
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Docnoq
on February 24, 2010 11:47 AM |
Damn slacking space industry.. if only they had kept up with their innovation like the rest of the technology sector! |
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skitzo_zac
on February 24, 2010 7:16 PM |
Very novelty and a nice change of pace compared to all the other tech news. |
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9Nails
on February 24, 2010 7:52 PM |
Seriously? 4 Million transistors would fit into the period at the end of a sentence? I can hardly imagine 10 of anything fitting into a space that small. Let alone several Million! Wow. |
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AtK SpAdE
on February 24, 2010 10:40 PM |
Very cool article! |
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Wendig0
on February 25, 2010 12:19 AM |
Nicely done Julio. I always enjoy stuff like this! |
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CMH
on February 25, 2010 8:11 AM |
Lol, Julio did copy all the facts off elsewhere (which was referenced in the article). Should thank Intel instead Anyways, I'm gonna go see how long it'll take me to flick that light switch.... |
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kozman
on March 5, 2010 9:15 PM |
I wonder how these are manufactured? NanoBots? |
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megrawab
on March 6, 2010 5:03 AM |
We're getting modern and modern.. and technology gets more harder and harder. lol... 32 nanometers, 32*10^-9? Nice! I have to be a geek or a nerdy to be able to make core i3, what more if it's core i5... |
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JamesP
on March 9, 2010 1:29 AM |
I wonder how these are manufactured? NanoBots? By nanochinese |
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jobeard
on March 9, 2010 6:57 PM |
I wonder how these are manufactured? NanoBots? nao-nao ... "Mork & Mindy" |
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zyodei
on March 13, 2010 7:02 AM |
The 4 million in the period on a screen bit really blew my mind... |
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Thompson
on March 14, 2010 3:05 AM |
My mind = BLOWN |
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JMMD
on March 15, 2010 6:13 AM |
It's pretty amazing how far this technology has come. Just trying to imagine some of these numbers give me a headache, I can't even begin to think about the technology 10 or 20 years from now. |
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chuchu232
on March 16, 2010 12:38 AM |
My god, thats small! I doubt the whole period thing though considering im using an iphone at the moment. now if i zoom in... thats better |
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CMH
on March 17, 2010 8:33 AM |
Still flicking light switches.... |
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buttus
on March 17, 2010 11:02 AM |
that's VERY small. Wow. I wonder where the theoretical limit is though for reducing die size? |
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sagejay
on March 18, 2010 9:04 PM |
yes it's indeed quite small, I'm pretty sure, soon enough there's going to be super small camera and everything, technology is starting to scare me |
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