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Chips

Chip names aren't sizes

A “3nm” chip is not 3nm. Intel's “1.8nm” chip has bigger parts than TSMC's “3nm”. Chip names are not sizes.

Numbers as of the original post

The full story

  1. Which chip is smaller? Intel's chip called 1.8nm: a tiny name bar of 1.8 and a long real-size bar of 32 nanometres. TSMC's chip called 3nm: a name bar of 3 and a shorter real-size bar of 23. The name says Intel is smaller; the ruler says TSMC.
  2. Furthest off, 1 of 4: Intel 18A. Its real size is 18 times the number in its name. Found in Core Ultra Series 3, Intel's newest laptop chips from January 2026.
  3. 2 of 4: Intel 3. Its real size is 30 nanometres, 10 times the number in its name. Found in Xeon 6, Intel's server chips from 2024.
  4. 3 of 4: TSMC 3nm. Its real size is 8 times the number in its name. Found in the iPhone 16 Pro's A18 Pro chip, 2024.
  5. Closest, 4 of 4: TSMC 7nm. Its real size is 40 nanometres, 6 times the number in its name. Found in the iPhone XS's A12 chip, 2018.
  6. The twist: in July 2021 Intel renamed its upcoming 10nm process Intel 7. Same process, smaller name. Intel said names now follow speed and power, not size.
  7. All four: Intel 18A 18 times, Intel 3 10 times, TSMC 3nm 8 times, TSMC 7nm 6 times bigger than their names. From 7nm to 3nm the name fell 57 percent and the real size 43 percent.
  8. Who wins the 2nm race? Choices: Intel, TSMC, Samsung, other. The name, or the ruler? Follow Green Owl if you want more.

Did you think the number was a real size? 👇

Chip names like “3nm” sound like a measurement. They are model names, like “iPhone 17”.

Intel's newest chip line is called 18A. People call it 1.8nm. The smallest gap between its wires: 32nm.

TSMC's 3nm chip line. The smallest gap between its wires: 23nm.

So the smaller name has the bigger parts.

In 2021 Intel renamed its “10nm” chips “Intel 7”. The chips did not change.

The catch: each company measures its own way. A smaller gap alone does not make a better chip. This is not a ranking of Intel and TSMC.

Next time a headline says “2nm”, read it as a name.

Save this for the next chip headline.

Want to see how this looks now?

When enough people ask, we re-check the numbers and redraw it.

Where the numbers come from

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Companies in this picture

IntelSamsungTSMC

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