CPU Lithography in Simple Terms?

Question

Hello,

Could someone please tell me what 'lithography' and 'die size' mean in computing processor terms. Please explain it as easy and as descriptively as possible, as although I'm not a newbie with computers, I am fairly new in the CPU area, and I've tried looking up on Wikipedia and Google, but they all use words that I don't understand...

I know that a smaller number is better for performance, and draws less heat, but what exactly is it?

Thank you,
Dylan.

Answer 1

Lithography comes from a Greek word it is a form of printing on a single surface based on the fact that oil and water repel one another . I was a draughtsman and a circuit board would be drawn at a large size as it is easier to design it and change it. Lots of elecrical circuits are put together like Lego pieces they are then photographed and the circuit board CPU or whatever are photographically reduced in size so you might have a million transistors on a 1/4" square CPU this is then printed lithographically onto a sheet of silicon or gallium disulphide, stick your pin board to it et voila a Pentium CPU.The more you reduce the CPU size the faster it gets

The circuits were getting so small that the circuit lines were down to 1 or 2 atoms (nanometers) thick To enable CPU's to get faster Intel were force to develop Dual core Processors they are larger & split up the processing to separate Circuits.

Very Simplified explanation OOOh my brain hurts!

Answer 2

Lithography is a kind of printing process which is used to create the circuitry on the chip. It's a bit like taking and developing a (non-digital) photograph.



The die size is the physical size of the actual silicon chip (which is rather small in relation to the "package size" of the whole processor).



Nanometres usually refers to the production process used to create the circuitry. The more nanometres, the larger the features on the silicon are, and the less circuitry can fit on the die. The smaller the number of nanometres, the more complex the circuitry can be.



I'm not sure exactly what is measured to arrive at the number of nanometres, but it does relate indirectly to the minimum size of a detail within the circuitry on the die. This number is not in itself the actual size of the smallest possible detail. However, the smaller the number is, the smaller the smallest possible detail is.



The physical size of the processor die is limited by the speed of light; if you make it too big, the electricity takes too long to move around the circuits and so you have to reduce the clock frequency of the processor to make sure all the electricity gets to where it is supposed to go before the next clock cycle starts.



You can't increase the speed of light, so if you want the electricity to finish up where it needs to finish up in less time than before, you have to shorten the distance it needs to travel.



Therefore, if you want to add more circuitry to allow you to do more calculations or actions in each fixed clock cycle, you have to reduce the physical size of the entire contents of the chip so that you are not adding too much time to the journey of the electricity through the circuits.



Likewise, if you require a faster clock speed, you have to make the entire contents of the chip smaller so the electricity can travel around the same circuit in a shorter time.

Answer 3

A CPU consists of a ceramic outer case with pins/buttons to connect to circuit boards. Inside is a silicon wafer that carries the processor's circuitry (the die). This circuitry, including transistors, etc is created by photographic lithography - a process of creating a master and reducing it to the size of the wafer. The wafers are then printed to using the reduced master. this process also connects all the pins/buttons to the circuit. 45nm is the minimum track width that is printed to the silicon wafer. As technology has improved, the minimum trackwidth has reduced. Currently, the circuitry inside most processors requires a master nearly the size of a football field to be reduced to around 2cm square (the die size).

Answer 4

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Answer 5

lithography is the process used to make the chip. Lithos in greek means stone, and graphy is write.

So its just the method used to make the actual chip. Die size is the actual size of the CPU's chip in physical terms.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

It's all slang. I am studying Computer Science and have covered all hardware and software. They dont exist in the books.

Answer 8

in core temp my is at 0nm is that possible