| Nickelbackro said: nm is an engineering prefix of the size of the chip die, Basically by reducing the size the chip and making it thinner allows it to use less energy to do the same tasks and it also dissipates heat faster. |
ugh... no, no and no again.. that's 0 out of 3.
nm basically tells you something about the minimum structure size (or simply said how close you can put one element to another one). The chip does not get thinner at all and does not dissipate heat faster at all. Dissipating heat is a problem of energy density and heat conduction of your cooling solution. (The heat problem is a problem which most people get wrong, actually. A die shrink usually let's you clock the chip higher, or saves, say, 25% of current/voltage if you keep the clock the same. In the end, you generate less heat overall, but _on a much smaller active chip surface_, therefore the energy density actually goes up and requires a _better_ cooling, not a cheaper cooling!
