For many years the semiconductor industry has been looking at ways to make the transistor smaller and faster. As chip dies got down below 10 microns and transistors are working at the atomic level they have hit a wall that nature has in place that they have been trying to get over.
Well, it looks like they may have found a way to get over the wall. Check out this article (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb06/2800) and see what the latest transistor technology is. This article goes into some really heavy technical descriptions of what is being worked on. Very interesting.
Enjoy.
Phil