Scientists at the University of Sydney claim to have found a technology that would possibly allow the internet to become up to hundred times faster than current networks. After four years of development they have created a switch that's "only" 60 times faster than current networks. With little extra work the scientists are confident that they can reach the 100 times faster speed rates. "This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there. We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more," says Federation Fellow Professor Ben Eggleton, Director of CUDOS which is based within the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. The switch is created using a small scratch on a piece of glass. This scratched glass is actually a photonic integrated circuit that has the capacity to increase the slow rate of information carried by optical fibres. Using photonic technology that has terabit per second speed, the circuit uses the scratch as a guide or a switching path for information. Similar to when trains are switched from one track to another, this switch takes only one picosecond to change tracks. Therefore in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times. Additional information on the new scratch switches can be obtained at the University of Sydney's website here.

D-link has announced Ethernet desktop switches that, it claims, use up to 44 percent less power than existing 5-port switches. It said it was the first company to bring such green Ethernet switches to the market. The power saving is accomplished in two ways. First, the new switches measure when PCs connected to them are turned off and then power down into standby mode. Secondly, they analyze cable lengths and can adjust power usage for different cable lengths accordingly. Most existing switches are powered up to support 100m cable lengths all the time, but many small systems use only 5-10m of cable. The IEEE standards body has an energy-efficient Ethernet study group, known as 802.3 A ratified standard is not expected for a couple of years or more and D-Link has introduced its products well before this. D-Link does not appear to be involved with this standards effort. D-Link will deliver Green Ethernet switches across its range of desktop, smart and xStack managed switches. All of the company's sub-24 port desktop switches will be green by the end of 2007. The smart and managed switches will evolve to Green Ethernet products through 2008.