Superfast broadband on the way

Faster broadband may be a reality soon with the completion of the latest International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard for digital subscriber line (DSL), reports Computerworld.

The ITU says the specification, called VDSL2 (Very High Bit Rate DSL 2), can deliver as much as 100Mbps, both upstream and downstream, which is many times faster than the current DSL speeds of just a few megabits per second or less.

VDSL2 will easily deliver voice calls, video conferencing, high-definition TV and video on demand over existing copper phone lines, says the ITU.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) says although radio frequency identification (RFID) is becoming increasingly popular in government, agencies have not seriously considered the privacy risks.

According to News.com, a GAO report says only one of 23 agencies polled had identified any legal or privacy issues, even though three admitted RFID would enable them to track employee movements.

The GAO says few privacy concerns exist when RFID is used to track warehouse pallets, but when embedded in ID cards or otherwise linked to personal information, key security issues include protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data systems.

Although computer chipmakers are likely to continue using silicon for several more generations, the ability to decrease the size of today`s silicon-based transistors will eventually hit a wall, leading chipmakers to look to alternatives such as carbon nanotubes, nanowires and other nanotechnologies, reports eWeek.

Chip giant Intel is reportedly stepping up its research on carbon nanotubes or tiny tubes of rolled-up carbon hexagons, as a way to continue boosting the performance of processors and memory, leading to future advances in computer chips.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, nanotechnology will begin playing a major role in chip manufacture around 2020.

The open source Firefox Web browser appears to be unstoppable as it continues to gain in popularity, despite the recent discovery of vulnerabilities, reports Softpedia.

According to the W3schools Web development site, Firefox has reached a market share of 25%, while Internet Explorer has dropped to 64.8%, down from 95% in November 2004.

A study of the Secunia security company shows that regardless of all the security bugs recently discovered, users have not lost their faith in Firefox.

Softpedia says if the browser maintains its adoption rate, Firefox may end up with the biggest share of the browser market.