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Intel has demonstrated its radical new "Ivy Bridge" three-dimensional processor, dubbed Tri-Gate, which it is billing as one of the major breakthroughs of its 43-year history.

The chip, which uses 22-nanometre technology, was demonstrated by senior fellow Mark Bohr at a media conference in San Francisco around 2.30am, Sydney time, running on a server, a desktop and a notebook PC – but Intel believes it will also see the company move in a major way into the handheld processor area now dominated by designs from ARM of the UK.

Said Bohr: "The performance gains and power savings of Intel's unique 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are like nothing we've seen before. This milestone is going further than simply keeping up with Moore's Law (which suggests the number of transistors that fit on a chip roughly doubles every two years).

"The low-voltage and low-power benefits far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next. It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible."