Intel presents new transistor - less power usage, more performance

Intel and Qinetiq have managed to create a transistor that uses far less power and performs better than transistors used in today's chips.

Following two years of joint research, the companies announced this week that they created a "quantum well" transistor out of indium antimonide developed by Qinetiq. Indium antimonide is a so-called III-V compound, meaning that its two elements come from third and fifth columns in the periodic table of the elements. Some communication chips already incorporate III-V compounds.

A quantum well transistor differs substantially from existing transistors in that data values are determined by the state of electrons, rather than the electrons' transmission.

More details at ZDNet