What do nanometers (nm) refer to when talking about microprocessors? Why is smaller better?

Question

I often hear about a new, smaller microprocessor that is, for example 5nm instead of 7nm.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Originally it mean the size of the transistors that made up the processor. Somehwere round 45nm that stopped applying as it got harder to make them smaller. It’s just a name for a particular generation nowadays and has little to do withthe size of features.