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IBM's Web site reports that, "The new technology, named CMOS 9S, unites...innovations in copper wiring, silicon-on-insulator transistors and improved, 'low-k dielectric' insulation to build chip circuits as small as 0.13 microns, or nearly 800 times thinner than a human hair. The smaller circuitry and improved materials provide more processing power on a single chip, helping electronic products to support new, performance-hungry applications like speech recognition, fingerprint authentication and wireless video."

Intel is also working on CMOS chips at similar speeds, so IBM's announcement is good news for Apple, whose processor speeds have slipped behind those of its competitors. If IBM incorporates CMOS technology into the next range of PowerPC 750 chips - the G3 processor - then Apple's consumer iBook and iMac ranges should be able to match "Intel Inside" PCs for raw pace. Furthermore, if, as has been suggested, Apple is to include re-writable CD devices into the next wave of Macs, then it should be able to claw back some of the heavy losses suffered in the last financial quarter.