IBM spoils Intel's show a bit on new processor technology.

Chip makers have used silicon as the element of choice for such transistors for more than forty years. Now, because of atomic-level constraints, they've had to a pick a new element - hafnium - and a pair of undisclosed metals to get the same job done. Finding the right materials and manufacturing techniques to produce these new transistors has taken years and years of blood, sweat and tears research. How funny then that after a decade of grunting in the labs Intel and IBM simultaneously nailed the scientific breakthrough, issued press releases about their achievements at the same time and shared in their ambivalence as to whether or not anyone read about the game-changing events.