Hitachi WirelessInfo Venture Company (WI), a new division of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) formed in July 2005, is working with Ember Corporation to develop a family of ZigBee-based sensors for use in a variety of wireless monitoring, sensing and control applications. ZigBee is an embedded wireless network standard that solves the unique needs of remote monitoring and control, and sensor network applications.
Hitachi WI is developing ZigBee wireless sensor and control modules based on Ember’s ZigBee compliant platform. The new modules will be marketed to other Hitachi business units, including Hitachi Electronics Services Co. and Hitachi Urban Development, as well as other OEM companies. Hitachi WI plans to adopt Ember’s next generation EM250 system-on-a-chip in 2006.
Hitachi WI is developing both standard and application-specific ZigBee modules using Ember chips and software. These include innovative wireless applications for:
- Sanitary control in warehouses and food factories.
- Commercial building security and energy saving systems.
- Supply chain quality monitoring.
- Remote facility monitoring and control.
“We are sure that with Hitachi’s AirSense (TM) products, utilizing Ember’s proven, state of the art ZigBee technology, our customers can experience the benefits of a low-power, wireless, and maintenance-free network,” said Taizo Kinoshita, president & CEO of Hitachi WirelessInfo Venture Company. “The partnership with Ember is essential to our strategy to commercialize sensor network systems as well as promote an industry wide standard in wireless data communications.”
Ember develops tiny, low power ZigBee systems for creating wireless sensing and control networks that automatically configure and heal themselves, and work for years on very little power. The Ember EM250 is a 802.15.4/ZigBee semiconductor system that integrates a programmable microprocessor, RF radio, network protocol stack and memory into a tiny, single-chip solution.
Ember’s ZigBee systems are already being used in a variety of consumer and industrial applications, such as home automation and control, automatic meter reading and asset management.
“One measure of an industry standard’s market success is its adoption by major OEM brands,” said Ember Chairman Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe. “Hitachi’s adoption of Ember’s ZigBee platform is a strong validation of a standards-based approach to commercial wireless sensing and control.”
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 Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 347,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2004 (ended March 31, 2005) consolidated sales totaled 9,027.0 billion yen ($84.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.
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 more than 100 customers. Spun out of MIT in 2001, 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.
