Apple Silicon Manufacturing Processes Under the Magnifying Glass
What does the nanometer count mean?
We are generally used to the idea that the bigger something is, the better it is. However, this is not the case with processor and chip manufacturing technology because, here, it is exactly the opposite. Even if we can move away from the nanometre number about performance, it is still primarily about marketing.
The abbreviation ‘nm’ here stands for nanometre and is a unit of length, where it is one billionth of a metre and is used to express dimensions on an atomic scale — for example, the distance between atoms in solids. However, engineering terminology typically refers to a “process node”. It is used to measure the distance between adjacent transistors in the design of processors and to measure the actual size of these transistors.
Many chipset companies, such as TSMC, Samsung, Intel, etc., use nanometer units in their manufacturing processes. This indicates how many transistors are inside the processor.
