A combination of things have been done (over time) to speed up treatment (these things were also needed for radiosurgery). For example, 1) Iris collimator allows much faster collimator changes - making use of several collimator sizes more practical. 2) 1000 MU/minute linac, 3) skip untreated nodes.

In addition, apparently a software option has been added that works something like this. First you plan as if you are doing radiosurgery. Then you tell the planning system what treatment time you would like. It then determines a "best" plan to achieve your time goal.

The summary is that you can do a twenty minute treatment; with plans as good as, or better than, RapidArc; while having the CK imaging/tracking abilities. The number of beams would be around the low 30s.

Is it a good thing? I don't know. It seems like down selling the machine and making it look more ordinary. However, I do see why they would like to make it more flexible.