What ARE the mosfets that are found on motherboards?

[MysticX23]

All i know about mosfets on the motherboards are that they are voltage regulators. I've also just learned in class that they are transistors, like BJT's. However, I thought transistors are SMALL! Are the mosfets on the mobo (which also get really hot) the same as the ones found in processors?

 

[Delorian]

Transistors CAN be small, just depends on the technology. Look at really old processors. Intel's 386 had only 275K transistors at 1 micron. Nowadays they are smaller with P4's having up to 55 million transistors at .13 microns!

 

[zephyrprime]

Yeah but that's still small compared to a mosfet.

Transistors aren't all small. They can be big. What do you think they use in audio amps? The first transistors were big like mosfets I believe.