Giant chipmaker Intel produces tiniest ever transistor

Chipmaker Intel claims to have made the world's smallest and fastest transistor, which will be the basis of the next generation of chipsets.

Intel says the new transistors will enable it to meet Moore's law - the theory that states chip performance will double every 18 months - for another five to ten years. The transistors are built from oxides only three atomic layers thick, using traditional design architecture. Intel says the breakthrough is especially significant because many scientists had thought processors using a standard design would be unable to function at such a tiny scale due to problems with electrical leakage. Intel predicts chips built from the transistors will be able to fit on them ten times more transistors, around 400 million, and run at over 10 GHz.