Thanks Qba73 for submitting this to us.. A professor in the US says he has a way to maintain or even beat "Moore"s Law" - the decades-old observation that computer chips double in speed every 18 months.
Fabs - the fabrication plants where chips are made - are vastly expensive, with companies like Intel and AMD spending billions of dollars to keep up the pace of improvement expected by consumers.
But now Professor Stephen Chou of Princeton University says he has a way of stamping out chips with a die which could keep Moore"s Law in operation for decades and maybe even beat it.
"We"re probably 20 years ahead of the curve," he told BBC News Online.
Today"s chip builders are beginning to approach the physical limits of the current printing process, as the size of components they need to print falls beneath the wavelength of light.
They are turning towards even more expensive printing machines, using electron beams and extreme ultra-violet light.
Professor Chou"s process could eventually save them the trouble.