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Why is Die Size Important?
Die size is a technical term for the size of the wafer, which is made of
silicon. The smaller the die size is, the closer the components are to
each other which makes better performance. Unfortunately it reduces it's
variety of capabilities and tasks; in our current technological time phase
we can't make super chips that can allow every yet. There's nothing wrong
with confining it's capabilities, it just makes it more efficient at what
it does. Chip programmers have fundamental tradeoffs on the chip and can
have the chip run a bunch of microcode. That microcode finds out what application/execution
you've been using least and deletes it to make the chip faster, or creates
a new application/execution for the user to, well, use.
When die size reduces, it makes the proximity smaller which makes the
chip a lot faster. You see, when you make the chip smaller, the wires and
such are a lot shorter so when the chip is transferring information or
making executions, the clock rate is a lot faster. Think of it this way,
it's like walking 2 feet rather than a mile to a location that is the same
(or at least does something the same, distance doesn't really matter).
Also, when the components are smaller, it may take a little more time and
human labor to produce, but is very cost effective in the long run.
Another subject that die size effects is yield. The smaller the die
size, the higher the yield. That's because the smaller that something is,
the less probability of error rate there will be. Take this for an example:
You have a dart board with a huge bulls eye in the middle, chances are
that if you throw a dart your bound to hit it. Now you have the same size
dart board, but now you have a tiny dot for a bulls eye, I don't care how
good you are at darts, but you're not going to hit that bulls eye in one
try. When testing a wafer, you have many chips. Those chips have to be
very small so that the yield stays high.
Die size is probably one of the most important things when it comes
to making a chip or wafer. If it was bigger than our current die size,
I bet technology would shrink very fast.
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