Global InformationTransistor count information
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The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device (typically on a single substrate or "chip"). It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity (although the majority of transistors in modern microprocessors are contained in cache memories, which consist mostly of the same memory cell circuits replicated many times). The rate at which MOS transistor counts have increased generally follows Moore's law, which observes that transistor count doubles approximately every two years.[1] However, being directly proportional to the area of a chip, transistor count does not represent how advanced the corresponding manufacturing technology is: a better indication of this is transistor density (the ratio of a chip's transistor count to its area).
As of 2023[update], the highest transistor count in flash memory is Micron's 2 terabyte (3D-stacked) 16-die, 232-layer V-NAND flash memory chip, with 5.3 trillion floating-gate MOSFETs (3 bits per transistor).
The highest transistor count in a single chip processor as of 2020[update] is that of the deep learning processor Wafer Scale Engine 2 by Cerebras. It has 2.6 trillion MOSFETs in 84 exposed fields (dies) on a wafer, manufactured using TSMC's 7 nm FinFET process.[2][3][4][5][6]
As of 2024[update], the GPU with the highest transistor count is Nvidia's GB200 Grace Blackwell, built on TSMC's 4 nm process and totalling 208 billion MOSFETs.
The highest transistor count in a consumer microprocessor as of June 2023[update] is 134 billion transistors, in Apple's ARM-based dual-die M2 Ultra system on a chip, which is fabricated using TSMC's 5 nm semiconductor manufacturing process.[7]
| Year | Component | Name | Number of MOSFETs (in trillions) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Flash memory | Micron's V-NAND chip | 5.3 | stacked package of sixteen 232-layer 3D NAND dies |
| 2020 | any processor | Wafer Scale Engine 2 | 2.6 | wafer-scale design of 84 exposed fields (dies) |
| 2024 | GPU | GB200 Grace Blackwell | 0.208 | |
| 2023 | microprocessor (commercial) |
M2 Ultra | 0.134 | dual-die SoC; entire M2 Ultra is a multi-chip module |
| 2020 | DLP | Colossus Mk2 GC200 | 0.059 | An IPU in contrast to CPU and GPU |
In terms of computer systems that consist of numerous integrated circuits, the supercomputer with the highest transistor count as of 2016[update] was the Chinese-designed Sunway TaihuLight, which has for all CPUs/nodes combined "about 400 trillion transistors in the processing part of the hardware" and "the DRAM includes about 12 quadrillion transistors, and that's about 97 percent of all the transistors."[8] To compare, the smallest computer, as of 2018[update] dwarfed by a grain of rice, had on the order of 100,000 transistors. Early experimental solid-state computers had as few as 130 transistors but used large amounts of diode logic. The first carbon nanotube computer had 178 transistors and was a 1-bit one-instruction set computer, while a later one is 16-bit (its instruction set is 32-bit RISC-V though).
Ionic transistor chips ("water-based" analog limited processor), have up to hundreds of such transistors.[9]
Estimates of the total numbers of transistors manufactured:
- Up to 2014: 2.9×1021
- Up to 2018: 1.3×1022[10][11]
- ^ Khosla, Robin (2017). Alternate high-k dielectrics for next-generation CMOS logic and memory technology (PhD). IIT Mandi.
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WikichipFuse-WSEwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Everett, Joseph (August 26, 2020). "World's largest CPU has 850,000 7 nm cores that are optimized for AI and 2.6 trillion transistors". TechReportArticles.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
m2ultrawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "John Gustafson's answer to How many individual transistors are in the world's most powerful supercomputer?". Quora. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
- ^ Pires, Francisco (October 5, 2022). "Water-Based Chips Could be Breakthrough for Neural Networking, AI: Wetware has gained an entirely new meaning". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
- ^ Laws, David (April 2, 2018). "13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History". Computer History Museum.
- ^ Handy, Jim (May 26, 2014). "How Many Transistors Have Ever Shipped?". Forbes.