People who have seen it say a machine in a government laboratory in California appears an unlikely contraption for all the stir it is causing - a collection of mirrors, a laser bolted to a stainless steel lab bench, some clamps and other gadgets.

But it may hold the key to the future of one of the largest and fastest growing industries, computer chips. It is also at the centre of a gathering storm of protest in the US Congress and among Clinton Administration officials.

And at the eye of the storm is a move by a consortium of computer chip manufacturers led by Intel Corp. to take control of a manufacturing technology potentially worth billions of dollars and turn it over to Japan's Nikon Corp and a European company. Government officials and industry representatives say the device has demonstrated the validity of a science called extreme ultraviolet lithography, which is a way of squeezing hundreds of times more information onto silicon chips than is now possible. The processes may in a few years become a new generation of steppers, the massive and expensive machines that etch features such as transistors and capacitors onto silicon wafers to produce computer chips.

Intel owns a majority interest in the consortium, which also includes Motorola Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

If the next generation of steppers is created, Intel says it does not believe any US manufacturer has the capacity to supply its needs. The consortium has talked with Nikon and ASM Lithography, a Dutch company, about manufacturing the envisioned new steppers.

But the Clinton administration is seriously concerned about the potential leakage of the technology outside the US, particularly given its possible military application.