process node

A process node is the name of a chip-manufacturing generation — "7nm," "5nm," "3nm" — that tells you which era of transistor a chip was built with. Think of it like a printing press's resolution: a finer press lays down crisper, smaller letters, so you fit more words on a page. A finer node prints smaller transistors, so you cram billions more onto the same sliver of silicon, and each newer generation aims to do it denser, faster, and on less power.

Here's the twist designers know: the nanometre number stopped matching any real measurement long ago — the gap was already wide by the FinFET era around 22nm. It's now a relative label — TSMC's "5nm" and Intel's older "7nm"-class node can land at similar transistor density. What actually advances are the pitch dimensions (gate, metal, fin) and the device architecture, like the move from planar to FinFET to gate-all-around nanosheets. So "3nm" marks roughly the 2022–2023 leading edge, not a 3-nanometre gate.