FUN FACTS: EXACTLY HOW SMALL (AND POWERFUL) IS 45 NANOMETERS?
There are 1 billion nanometers (nm) in one meter. A meter is approximately 3 feet.
The original transistor built by Bell Labs in 1947 could be held in your hand, while hundreds of Intel’s new 45nm transistor can fit on the surface of a single red blood cell.
If a house shrunk at the same pace transistors have, you would not be able to see a house without a microscope. To see the 45nm transistor, you need a very advanced microscope.
The price of a transistor in one of Intel’s forthcoming next-generation processors -- codenamed Penryn -- will be about 1 millionth the average price of a transistor in 1968. If car prices had fallen at the same rate, a new car today would cost about 1 cent. 45nm Size Comparison o A nail = 20 million nm o A human hair = 90,000nm o Ragweed pollen = 20,000nm o Bacteria = 2,000nm o Intel 45nm transistor = 45nm o Rhinovirus = 20nm o Silicon atom = 0.24nm
You could fit more than 2,000 45nm transistors across the width of a human hair.
You could fit more than 30 million 45nm transistors onto the head of a pin, which measures approximately 1.5 million nm (1.5 mm) in diameter.
More than 2 million 45nm transistors could fit on the period (estimated to be 1/10 square millimeter in area) at the end of this sentence.
A 45nm transistor can switch on and off approximately 300 billion times a second. A beam of light travels less than a tenth of an inch during the time it takes a 45nm transistor to switch on and off. -- 30 -- Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.