# Electronic – Process Size and Power Consumption

cpuefficiencypower

So to the background of my question, there has been a rumor around that Apple might use Intel's fab to manufacture their A4 or A5 chips as they no longer source them from Samsung. The article then goes on to state that Apple might then benefit from Intel's knowledge of a 22nm process and that would mean some power savings for them, giving them a quite a large amount of power savings over their current 45 nm process.

So my questions is in two parts; How much power saving does a die shrink offer all things being equal and Is there a mathematical formula for this for calculating the power consumption as a function of process size?

The last thing I would like to add, that is more conjecture then anything else, because we just don't know; that is, until Intel releases a product using their 3D transistor platform; how much benefit do 3D transistors add to the overall power efficacy of the chip?

It can be shown that when a capacitor is charged through a load resistor, 1/2 of the energy used in charging the capacitor is lost in the resistor, for a total energy dissipation of \$\frac{1}{2}C{V_s}^2\$, where \$V_s\$ is the supply voltage. When the switch then turns on, assuming the resistance of the switch is much less than the load resistance, that same energy will be dissipated in the switch, for a total energy of \$C{V_s}^2\$. Dividing this by the switching period gives you the dynamic power dissipation of the switch/capacitance combo, \$C{V_s}^2f\$. Shrinking the die reduces the junction capacitances of the MOSFETS, so if you know the supply voltage, switching frequency, number of transistors and the approximate junction capacitances of a certain process, you could calculate a ballpark figure of what kind of power savings a process shrink entails, all other things being equal.