Is 3nm Real? The Truth About Mobile Chipset Rankings in 2026
The 2026 Chipset Lie: Why '3nm' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means By Sanju Sapkota | sanjusapkota.com.np We are suckers for numbers. We see "3nm" or "2nm" on a glossy presentation slide and we assume it’s a measurement of distance—like a millimeter or a meter. We imagine microscopic gates, etched with surgical precision, getting smaller every year. We think we are buying progress. But as we enter 2026, the reality is much colder. The "nanometer" is dead. It has been dead for a long time. Today, it is nothing more than a marketing tag, a brand name used by foundries like TSMC, Samsung, and Intel to keep the upgrade cycle spinning. If you think the jump from 5nm to 3nm in your latest flagship was a physical shrinking of the transistor, you’ve been played. The Great Geometric Myth In the early days of computing, the nanometer actually meant something. It referred to the physical length of the transistor gate. If you had a 90nm chip, you could t...