Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Ember® Corporation, a leader in low-power wireless semiconductor solutions announced their partnership on the ultra-low power ZigBee™ semiconductor platform. Atmel’s AVR® 8-bit Flash microcontrollers combined with Ember’s wireless semiconductor systems let OEMs take advantage of the emerging ZigBee application market with a complete, integrated microprocessor, radio and software solution.
ZigBee is a wireless, standards-based radio technology that addresses the unique needs of remote monitoring and control and sensor network applications.
The partnership has already borne fruit, with many electronics manufacturers (OEMs) bringing real-world ZigBee-based products to market. For example, NURI Telecom, one of Korea’s leading IT integrated management solution and automatic meter reading (AMR) solution providers, has developed a ZigBee-based AMR product and Home Network Solution using Atmel’s and Ember’s platform. NURI Telecom has also developed a ZigBee-based communication module as a OEM product for many other AMR and Home Network Solution providers. Currently in pilot testing in Korea, and soon to be launched in the U.S., NURI’s wireless AMR system will save utility companies millions of dollars by eliminating the need to manually read electric, gas and water meters at homeowners’ premises. It will also bring new revenue opportunities by enabling utilities to play in the emerging Digital Home market by providing remote monitoring and control services for home security, anti-fire system and home appliance control.
OEMs like NURI can rapidly build applications for the Atmel/Ember platform using the Ember’s 2420 Developer Kit. It includes hardware that comprises the Atmel AVR® microcontroller, development tools, and software for embedded applications. The kit’s software also includes a service-aware API that simplifies code development and lets OEMs focus on their embedded applications.
“Ember has a very good ZigBee platform,” said Jarle Boe, Atmel’s AVR Marketing Manager. “Ember’s first class ZigBee-ready solution combined with their strong support of the ZigBee Alliance makes them a great partner. Moreover, Ember’s IEEE 802.15.4 platform is used by National Technical Systems (NTS) as a ‘Golden Suite’ when comparing other 2.4 GHz, 802.15.4 products targeted for ZigBee for MAC-level interoperability.”
The Atmel and Ember ZigBee ready offering is designed as a complete, fast-to-market solution for OEMs building products for home and building control, automation, security, consumer electronics, medical monitoring and toys. These applications require a technology offering long battery life, reliability, automatic or semiautomatic installation, and simplified addition or removal of network nodes combined with a low system cost. The companies’ ZigBee ready solution supports all these requirements with wireless mesh monitoring and management networks that automatically configure and heal themselves while working for years on very little power.
Atmel’s AVR Flash microcontrollers (MCUs) are ideal for battery-powered ZigBee applications because they offer the lowest operating voltage and up to 50 times less consumption than other Flash MCUs on the market. Additionally, because network nodes must be field upgradeable over the ZigBee network, Atmel’s Flash based AVR MCUs provide field upgrade ability without extra system costs. The AVR-Ember solution complements other Atmel ZigBee initiatives such as Z-Link™ products.
“Atmel’s AVR microcontrollers work well in ZigBee applications thanks to the flexible internal memory sizes needed to support the ZigBee protocol stack,” said Venkat Bahl, Ember’s Vice President of Marketing. “The high performance and low power consumption offered by our combined chipset solution ensures minimum latency and maximum battery life for wide ranging ZigBee applications.”
About Atmel
Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest intellectual property (IP) portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You AreSM.
About Ember Corporation
Ember Corporation develops 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.
ZigBee: Wireless Control That Simply Works
The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective,
low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard.
The ZigBee Alliance is a rapidly growing, non-profit industry consortium of leading semiconductor
manufacturers, technology providers, OEMs, and end-users worldwide. Membership is open to all.
Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org.
© Atmel Corporation 2005. All rights reserved. Atmel®, logo and combinations thereof, AVR® and others are registered trademarks, and Everywhere You AreSM and Z-Link™ are the trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.
Information
Information on Atmel’s AVR microcontrollers can be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/avr. Information on Atmel’s Z-Link product can be retrieved at http://www.atmel.com/products/zigbee/.
Atmel Press Contacts
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communication Manager – Microcontrollers
Tel: +33 2 40 18 18 87, Email: philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com
Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager – Europe
Tel: +33 1 30 60 70 68, Fax: +49 71 31 67 24 23
Email: veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
Clive Over, Director of Press Relations – USA and Asia
Tel: +1 408 451 2855, Email: cliveover@atmel.com
Ember Press Contacts
Ravi Sharma
Ember Corporation
Tel: +1 617-951-1236, Email: ravi.sharma@ember.com
Stefanie Guzikowski
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations
Tel: +1 603-559-5836, Email: sguzikowski@beaupre.com
