[SOLVED] Lithography and die size

[BuildExplorer]

What is the purpose/importance of die size and lithography on a cpu? Like for example what does die size correlate to, as wel as the lithography of the chip, and what does having a 14nm chip as opposed to a 7nm chip mean for the performance power of a cpu?

 

[kanewolf]

What is the purpose/importance of die size and lithography on a cpu? Like for example what does die size correlate to, as wel as the lithography of the chip, and what does having a 14nm chip as opposed to a 7nm chip mean for the performance power of a cpu?

Lithography is related to the smallest discrete item that can be created. The wavelength of the light used to illuminate the mask actually comes into play. To get to nanometer scale the color of the light matters.
Die size has two important aspects. Total transistor count. The size of a discrete unit of switching (a transistor) requires some amount of square mm. If you need 1 billion transistors to accomplish the design for a CPU or GPU, then you can estimate the die size required based on the size of individual elements. The other area that die size is important for is "yield". That is the number of completely perfect chips. If a defect happens in any of the 100s or thousands of steps required to make the chip, it may render the chip useless. The smaller the die size the easier it is to get close to 100% yield. Greater area (die size) required for a single device, increases the probability of a defect.