Broadcom was the first to produce a chip for Gigabit Ethernet that could be used over existing copper cabling, and it has now teamed up with US networking equipment giant 3com to develop equipment around the chips.

Mobile operators carry signals to a handset through the airwaves via a network of base station sites, full of antennas and equipment. Next-generation mobile networks will demand far more such base stations, bringing with them a host of health, safety and environmental concerns ­ both real and spurious, as Jim Costello reports.

For many companies thinking about moving to the web, language and cultural barriers pose some of the most daunting challenges of all. Daniel Brockmann reports.

Internet-protocol (IP) aphone-on-a-chip' handsets are expected to be shipped to the North American market later this year. Here, Nick Flaherty investigates the evolving technologies behind Voice-over-IP and other asssociated broadband services

Pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes are fast emerging as the modern, effective way to join components in a number of industries and mobile phones are no exception. Rod Daley reports.

CeBIT 2001, the world business fair for office automation, information technology and telecommunications, takes place in Hannover, Germany, between 22nd to 28th March. More than 8015 companies from 60 different countries will be exhibiting on 422000 sq metres of display space.

An aintelligent' 19-inch rack system has been outfitted with a new chip card reader for access control. Safety and security-relevant network areas ­ for example the internal Intranets ­ are now protected from unauthorised access and manipulation.

Open source ideas are moving from operating systems such as Linux to the chips being used for the latest DSL equipment. Nick Flaherty reports.

In order to satisfy requirements regarding Internet and local area network (LAN) applications, Eurotech, one of the leaders in the field of embedded high performance digital systems for industrial, telecommunication and scientific applications, aims at providing a global solution called EmbeddedDNA. This is a new concept that allows the company to develop distributed systems (Internet-WAN, LAN, FieldBus) based on the PC/104, PC/104 Plus and CompactPCI modules.

The business issues and back office integration will make or break the next generation cellular phone networks, says Alun Lewis.

Many people seem to believe that wireless application protocol (WAP) has been overpromoted. Eric Russell investigates the development of the WAP market, highlights some concerns within the industry, and makes a contrast with the approach that has been taken in Japan.

Here is a company that did not exist two years ago. Nowit makes phones in China, configures them in Holland, plans contract manufacture of the core electronics in Eastern Europe, and claims to have slashed time-to-market to just three days. What do they think they are playing at? Nick Flaherty investigates.

As more mobile phones begin offering users Web browsers, consumers will be able to visit avirtual' storefronts from anywhere. This change in e-commerce has potential for corporations that market smart card technology, says Kevin Gillick.

Environmentally benign waste disposal is becoming a more and more acute problem. A newly-developed process, supercritical water oxidation is demonstrating extremely efficient organic waste destruction (99.99 per cent) plus excellent environmental characteristics (none of the emissions associated with incineration). Steve Minett and Keld Fenwick report.

Dr Cornelius von Riesen describes how a new process converts the Cinchona alkaloid ­ extracted from the bark of a tree ­ selectively into the new chiral quinuclidines Quincorine and Quincoridine.

In a world that is increasingly health and safety conscious, it is still common practice to awheel' portable gas cylinders to the individual workstation.

Eric Russell looks at the influence of internal and external drivers on biotechnology equipment development and the role of the laboratory scientist.

Surface plasmon resonance enables the detailed study of biomolecular function in real time and without the need for fluorescent tags or radioactive markers, and often without the need for prior purification. Elab reports.

The Centaurµs infrared (IR) microscope, from Thermo Nicolet, has been designed for the rapid throughput of samples in the pharmaceutical, polymer, forensic and microelectronic industries.

Products spanning the analytical spectrum won top honours at the annual Pittcon Editors' Awards judging session in New Orleans this year, according to Dr. Gordon Wilkinson, consultant editor to Instrumenta who organised the informal poll of editors and journalists covering this major industry event for analytical instruments and laboratory equipment.