Silicon Dioxide has been in the process of being replaced by variations of Hafnium alloys and oxides as the transistor gate oxide dielectric for ages now. It's nice to see that it's finally been cracked and that all those horrible reliability issues that have frustrated this happening for so long have been resolved.

Did I hear someone say NBTI?

No shush thats not real. you're measuring it wrong...

In all IBMs openness I didn't see a mention of what metal they're using as a gate contact in their shiny new process. We shall wait and see.

Does that mean AMD's future line of processors won't be made of Unobtainium anymore? Must have been a Phenom-only thing...

Right, some folks think Intel has pushed AMD so far into the corner that they cannot afford to do 45 nm fab. They're doomed if they don't. Will IBM help level the playing field a bit?