Ember Corporation today unveiled itsZigBee(TM) networking product roadmap for 2005 to help customers and partners better plan their future development projects. Ember, a
wireless semiconductor solutions company which has emerged as the
ZigBee market frontrunner, will unveil a range of new product
innovations, partnerships and services over the coming months that
will make it faster, easier and more profitable to build new ZigBee
wireless solutions.
ZigBee is a wireless, standards-based radio technology that
addresses the unique needs of remote monitoring and control and sensor
network applications.
Highlights of Ember’s 2005 ZigBee product roadmap include:
– a next-generation ZigBee semiconductor system that integrates
greater functionality, provides more application memory space,
and offers ultra-low power requirements;
– mass volume production of Ember’s ZigBee solutions for home
control and automation, automatic meter reading, building and
industrial controls, and other applications where Ember’s
customers have already triggered mass market demand;
– a fully compliant ZigBee network stack that is currently in
the final phase of standards compliance testing;
– new application-specific extensions for ZigBee networks that
will accelerate application development;
– new classroom courses added to the curriculum of Ember
University, a top training ground for learning ZigBee
application development. These will include new vertical
market focused classes, such as home control and automation;
– new customer support plans that will provide more options and
flexibility for both small development shops and large OEM
customers; and
– more tools added to the Ember Development Kit geared toward
enabling high-volume production and lower total cost of
ownership of OEM development efforts.
2004: A Record Year
Ember’s ZigBee roadmap revelation comes on the heels of a
breakthrough year in which the company achieved record revenue growth,
ramped up high volume production, and signed more OEM customers than
competitors. Ember also won numerous industry awards and accolades,
and closed $25 million in new funding from investors including
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital Group, ChevronTexaco
Technology Ventures, Hitachi Ltd. and WestAM. In addition, Bob
Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet who was recently awarded the U.S.
President’s National Medal of Technology, was named the company’s
chairman.
“In 2004 we helped put ZigBee on the map as the first company with
proven products used by our OEM customers in volume deployments,” said
Jeff Grammer, Ember’s CEO. “We now aim to extend our lead with an
aggressive succession of product announcements, service offerings and
customer wins that will keep us at least one technological generation
ahead of our competitors. We’re focusing all our future efforts on
improving the speed and ease by which our customers tap into the hot
growth ZigBee market.”
Some of these new customers include:
– Raymarine, the leading marine electronics manufacturer
recently unveiled the world’s first wireless boat autopilot;
– NURI Telecom, a Korean maker of automated meter reading
technology aims to wirelessly enable the electric, gas and
water meters of America’s homes and buildings with
Ember-enabled ZigBee wireless technology; and
– Arcom, a supplier of embedded industrial computer and
communications technology, integrated Ember’s wireless
semiconductors and software into its industrial network
gateways to provide communications between ZigBee networks and
IBM’s WebSphere(R) MQ Integrator.
In addition to its customer success, Ember’s lead in the ZigBee
race stems from its long involvement and contributions in helping to
forge the standard. Ember is a promoter of the ZigBee Alliance, with
Ember executives serving in strategic roles such as the organization’s
vice chairman as well as technical editor for the ZigBee networking
specification. Ember is also very supportive of the popular ZigBee
Open House events. Ember just completed a successful showing at the
recent Open House in San Francisco where it showcased many of its
customers’ products and is looking forward to demonstrating additional
devices that incorporate its technology at the Open House in Oslo,
Norway, June 15, 2005. Ember’s semiconductor system is also the
National Technical Systems’ (NTS) “Golden Suite” for evaluating IEEE
802.15.4 products for interoperability.
About Ember Corporation
Ember Corporation develops ZigBee-based wireless semiconductor
solutions that help buildings consume less energy, manufacturing
plants run with fewer breakdowns, and the country’s borders and
infrastructure remain safe and secure. Its vision is to help create an
“Internet of things” by enabling the eight billion microcontrollers
built into products each year to support low-cost, low-power
networking applications in any industry. Headquartered in Boston with
offices and distributors worldwide, the company was named one of
Fortune Magazine’s top “Cool Companies” and Red Herring’s “Top 100
Innovators” for 2004. For more information, please visit
www.ember.com.
