how is it possible for computer chips to have billions of transistors?

Question

Aren’t transistors physical things? How is it possible to manufacture billions, especially within the small size of a computer chip?

I saw the Apple m2 chip has 20 billion transistors – it just seems incomprehensible that that many can be manufactured.. they could be microscopic, but 20 billion is still an absurd number

In: 2283

Answer 1

Its possible because they are not individually manufactured. Think of it like spray painting with a stencil. If you put a stencil down of the letter ‘A’ and spray paint over it you get 1 ‘A’. You could also make a stencil with 100 ‘A’s on it and that same single spray will now get you 100 ‘A’s. We basically make transistors with very detailed stencils, ‘spraying’ light and chemicals through them. As we get better at making really detailed stencils we get more transistors per ‘spray’ basically for free.