At the VLSI Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, AMD researchers presented detailed information on their creation of transistors delivering some of the highest performance levels ever published. Faster transistors are key enablers of higher-performance customer solutions, acting as the fundamental building blocks of future microprocessor designs.
One set of transistors presented today use fully-depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FDSOI) technology and deliver the highest PMOS (P-channel metal-oxide semiconductor) transistor speed ever published: up to a 30% increase versus previously published transistors. The other set use Strained-Silicon and AMD metal gate technology to deliver 20-25% higher NMOS (N-channel metal-oxide semiconductor) performance relative to conventional Strained-Silicon transistors.
You can learn more in this press release, they go onto more technical details in the release, not just PR talk.
Speaking of AMD btw, apparently Athlon 64 release has been set for the end of this September, the only big question that remains however is if Microsoft will have its 64-bit iteration of Windows ready by then.