Chip companies entering their metal period | Tech News on ZDNet

Chip companies entering their metal period | Tech News on ZDNet: "For almost 40 years, chipmakers have been building transistor gates--the basic switch in a transistor--out of silicon. But Intel, IBM and Advanced Micro Devices now plan to introduce new materials for transistor gates that significantly cut power leakage while dramatically improving performance, company executives said this week in separate announcements."