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Mobile phone processors have evolved over the years. We currently have more powerful, more energy efficient and much smaller processors. The key to this constant evolution is nanometers. To many of us this word will not sound very familiar. But it is broadly what has allowed us to have almost mini computers in the palm of our hand today. We tell you why they are so important and what implications an architecture based on a smaller size of nanometers has.
Nanometers, processors and transistors
Nanometers themselves are just a unit of measurement, length to be exact. If we try to make a conversion from nanometers to meters, we find a ridiculous amount, but for the most curious: a nanometer is equivalent to one billionth of a meter. To simplify it, we will not be able to see something built in these dimensions. That's where its importance comes in. The components of a processor are built to this scale.
A processor is made up of transistors, these are its basic processing unit. They are in charge of behaving like a bit and imitating its simplest states that are 0 or 1. With this, it can let energy pass or not. Simplifying this, we can understand a bit as a light bulb that can be in two states, off or on. By joining several transistors we can create a logic gate that will be able to perform small and simple operations. But by adding more logic gates the number of operations you can perform increases, as well as their complexity.
The relationship between nanometers and processors lies in the transistors. As we have said before, these are your basic unit. Inside a processor we find thousands or millions of transistors. The amount has varied over the years due to progress in reducing its size. It is clear that this is not by mere whim, it is not only intended to reduce the size of the processors to be able to create smaller or thinner smartphones. Its main objective is to increase the number of transistors within a processor without increasing its size.
The advantage of this is clear. The greater the number of transistors we will have more logic gates capable of performing more complex operations in less time. The result of this is a greater "power" when it comes to processing information. In addition to this, by including a greater number of transistors we also obtain an increase in energy efficiency. This is because the transistors have less space between them, so the passage of energy between them is much more efficient so losses are reduced. The clear example of this is the passage from the Snapdragon 820 to the 830 as it changes the base architecture from 14 to 10 nanometers with all the advantages that this entails. Like a 36% size reduction and more internal components. All this means for the user is that they will have a mobile phone whose power will allow them to move any application or game without messing up, plus the battery consumption will be reduced so the autonomy will be greater.
Evolution and future of processors
In the beginning, the transistors inside the processors were not manufactured in nanometers but in microns. They were less efficient processors and much less powerful than the current ones. In just a few years, enormous progress has been made in reducing transistors. Since 2013 with the high-end that had the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 built in 28 nanometers. Until 808 and 810, which were reduced to 20 nanometers. Then we enter almost today with the 820-821 built in 14 nanometers and the most recent of all the 835 built in 10 nanometers. The evolution can be seen with the naked eye, reducing the size of the transistors to create more powerful and efficient processors.Today we are at 10 nanometers, but there is already a forecast to move to 7. It is clear that as we continue to advance in this way we will come to find a physical barrier that will not allow us to further reduce the size of the transistors and we will have to innovate otherwise.
