This excerpt from the New York Times:

Intel,
the world’s largest chip maker, has overhauled the basic building block
of the information age, paving the way for a new generation of faster
and more energy-efficient processors

Mark Bohr, an Intel physicist who led the research, holds a
45-nanometer wafer using new metal alloys that led the insulation
advance.

Company researchers said the
advance represented the most significant change in the materials used
to manufacture silicon chips since Intel pioneered the modern
integrated-circuit transistor more than four decades ago.
 

The
microprocessor chips, which Intel plans to begin making in the second
half of this year, are designed for computers but they could also have
applications in consumer devices. Their combination of processing power
and energy efficiency could make it possible, for example, for
cellphones to play video at length — a demanding digital task — with
less battery drain…