Ember Corporation received two industry honors last month from both sides of the Atlantic. The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) – the UK’s trade association for the microelectronics industry – named Ember its “Top Emerging Technology Company” for 2006, while Ember’s EM260 ZigBee network co-processor was chosen as one of the “50 Hottest Products of 2006” by the editors of U.S.-based Sensors Magazine.
The NMI award stems from Ember’s growing influence in Europe thanks to its Wireless IC Design Center in Cambridge, England. The Center, which has grown significantly this year, developed two of the industry’s most innovative semiconductors, including the first ZigBee system-on-a-chip integrating both radio and microcontroller: the EM250, as well as the first ZigBee network co-processor, the EM260.
Sensors Magazine selected the EM260 as a hot product because it offers the most flexible way to integrate ZigBee into commercial products. The honor was highlighted in the magazine’s November 2006 issue. The EM260 “lets OEMs embed wireless networking capabilities into their products using any number of microcontrollers,” the editors said. It allows OEMs to choose their preferred microcontroller to run their application, while letting the EM260 handle all the ZigBee networking functionality. This unique approach means OEMs don’t have to port an entire ZigBee protocol stack onto their microcontrollers, freeing up more memory and processing resources for the application.
“These accolades are a testament to the quality and innovativeness of the Ember team,” said Robert LeFort, Ember’s president and CEO. “It’s gratifying to see the industry validate what our customers have been telling us.”
About the NMI
The NMI is the semiconductor trade association representing firms in the UK and Ireland. A not-for-profit, the NMI has a charter to upgrade business systems and the industry infrastructure by providing activities and services for all stakeholders in the sector. These include business networks, technical forums, knowledge databases, funding support, capability mapping, voice-of-the industry, education and training.
About Sensors Magazine
Sensors Magazine was launched in 1984 to help engineers and engineering managers understand and apply sensing devices. Since then it has won numerous awards for editorial excellence and has gained a superior reputation among its 65,000 subscribers and the industry at large. Known for delivering the in-depth technical information that engineers need, Sensors helps people worldwide meet challenging design objectives. For further information, visit www.sensorsmag.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.
About Ember Corporation
Ember enables communication among embedded microcontrollers with standards-based wireless mesh networking semiconductors and software. Ember helps its customers to automate home appliances, lower energy consumption in buildings, keep borders and infrastructure secure, and control industrial processes, just to name four of the many diverse applications being developed by Ember’s customers. Ember is headquartered in Boston and has its radio development center in Cambridge, England and distributors worldwide. Ember is a lead member of the ZigBee Alliance, and its platform is the National Technical Systems’ (NTS) “Golden Suite” for 802.15.4/ZigBee interoperability testing. For more information, please visit www.ember.com.
