The next milestone in the relentless pursuit of smaller, higher performance microchips has been unveiled.
Chip-maker Intel has announced that it will start manufacturing processors using transistors just 45 nanometres (billionths of a metre) wide.
Shrinking the basic building blocks of microchips will make them faster and more efficient.
Computer giant IBM has also signalled its intention to start production of chips using the tiny components.
"Big Blue", which developed the transistor technology with partners Toshiba, Sony and AMD, intends to incorporate them into its chips in 2008.
Intel said it would start commercial fabrication of processors at three factories later this year.
The development means the fundamental "law" that underpins the development of all microchips, known as Moore's Law, remains intact.
The proposition, articulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, states that the number of transistors on a chip could double every 24 months.
Their development and integration into working components was described by Gordon Moore as "the biggest change in transistor technology" since the late 1960s.
The first working chips to incorporate 45nm devices were demonstrated last year by Intel, but they have never been incorporated into commercial products.
Dr Tze-chiang Chen, vice president of science and technology at IBM Research, said: "Until now, the chip industry was facing a major roadblock in terms of how far we could push current technology.
"After more than 10 years of effort, we now have a way forward."
The exact recipes for the different high-k metals used by Intel and IBM have not been disclosed, but importantly both firms have said that they could be incorporated into current production technology with minimal effort.
I think I'll wait for the quad-core version and the DX10 compatible video card
