eli5: How are 5nm chips better that 7nm chips?

Question

than*

In: 2

Answer 1

The speed of light is damned fast – 300,000Km per second. But computer chips are now so good (timing per cycle can be measured in billions of a second) that the time taken for the electricity to flow around the chip (electricity flows almost at the speed of light) has to be taken into account. So even though the chip might be just 4cm-5cm across, if you can make the internal components of the chip smaller they can be closer together, increasing processing speed.