IBM develops super-fast transistor.

Technological Progress
Every now and then there are quantum leaps forward with chip speed. This one is not too far out-of-the-ordinary in terms of progression with the speed of chips. While it's not the typical mundane advance, it's not overly earth-shaking.

Incidentally, there's nothing too exotic about germanium as for its usage with transistors. Germanium and silicon have been used since the start of transistors in late 40s. What is different is their use TOGETHER in a transistor (germanium being a faster "switcher" than does silicon and running at lower voltage).

On further inspection the article does list some more insight about what is different about the new breakthrough:

"Clay Ryder, president of Sageza Group, a technology market research firm, said the breakthrough should lead to faster processors, but ones that will run far below the top speed demonstrated by IBM. Most improvements in chip speeds over the years have come from shrinking transistor sizes, but IBM's approach is to fine-tune the silicon on the atomic level, meaning that transistors can be designed from the ground up with very specific applications in mind."

So should I trash my 8088 and go for the V20?

wow
Wow! an 8088!

Heheh about the V20 (at least it was 20% better)

I'm still using the 8080 micro-processor chip that I scrounged out of my Pong computer game.