You won't believe how fast transistors are

A transistor in a CPU is smaller and faster than a synapse in one of your brain's neurons by about the same ratio that a wolf is smaller and faster than a hill.

Smaller.

And.

Faster.

CPU: 11nm transistors, 30GHz transition rate (transistors flip significantly faster than overall clock speed)

Neurons: 1µm synapses, 200Hz pulse rate

Wolves: 1.6m long, average range 25 km/day

Hills: 145m tall (widely variable, of course), continental drift 2 cm/year

1µm/11nm ≅ 1.6m/145m

200Hz/30GHz ≅ (Continental drift 2 cm/year) / (Average range 25 km/day)


Original post: https://kitsunesoftware.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/you-wont-believe-how-fast-transistors-are/

Original post timestamp: Sun, 26 Nov 2017 22:25:50 +0000

Tags: biology

Categories: Science, Technology


© Ben Wheatley — Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International