Why are CPU and GPU manufacturers trying to make transistors smaller and smaller instead of making the chips bigger so they can put more transistors?

Question

Why are CPU and GPU manufacturers trying to make transistors smaller and smaller instead of making the chips bigger so they can put more transistors?

In: 11

Answer 1

So you have a limited amount of space. With space not being infinite each application would in theory have a maximum volume that the GPU and CPU can occupy. No one wants a Computer that takes up a full room anymore. So how do you increase the amount of something you want when you have a space constraint? You increase its density. So by shrinking the size of the transistors now we can fit more into the same space or put the same amount of into a smaller space.
If you do want to build a computer of colossal size it will now be able to be more powerful by taking advantage of the faster chipsets or (hopefully) less expensive by taking advantage of the older and less performance dense chips.