For the European electronics industry, November means Munich and Electronica, the biennial exhibition that is Europe's most important electronics trade show. Two years ago, ST used its presence at Electronica to highlight its system-on-chip capabilities, presenting not only products that were state-of-the-art at the time but also ambitious roadmaps that would keep ST at the forefront of system level integration.

This year, ST is again highlighting its system-on-chip capabilities at Electronica and customers who revisit the ST stand will find that the promises made two years ago have come to fruition. This issue of Challenge contains several articles that illustrate ST's continued leadership, including the world's first integrated DVD back end chip, the first commercial products built with the u#nique BCD5 technology and the landmark alliance with IBM Microelectronics.

Also included in this issue is an article about another ground-breaking new product from ST: the TOSCA™ two-chip "modem" solution for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the first in the world to be fully compatible with the ANSI 2 standard, but also software upgradable to comply with future revisions.

That great scholar of humanity, William Shakespeare, is the starting point for the Around the World pages. Here, we look closely at a statement from Julius Caesar. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune", as we discuss the all pervasive phenomenon that is the challenge of globalization.