ZigBee 2006 and Four New Golden Unit Platforms Now Publicly Available

Rapidly Expanding Supply Chain Offers OEMs 34 Compliant Platforms for Product Design

San Ramon, Calif. – December 12, 2006 – The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in residential, commercial and industrial applications, today announced the public availability of the ZigBee 2006 specification released to the Alliance membership last September and the availability of the first four platforms supporting that specification. The Alliance now offers original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) the latest enhancements to build new products that leverage the numerous strengths and features of ZigBee technology.

The first platforms to implement the latest version of the ZigBee standard and to pass independent testing by one of two ZigBee qualified testing labs, receive Golden Unit status. These new platforms are from Ember, Freescale Semiconductor, Integration Associates and Texas Instruments. The Alliance requires a minimum of three independent implementations to prove a specification revision and demonstrate interoperability to insure the quality of future ZigBee products. Golden Units are then established as reference points for future ZigBee Compliant Platform (ZCP) testing.

“Awarding Golden Unit status to ZigBee platforms represents an important step in providing a solid networking foundation for OEMs to develop a variety of products that offer more control for consumers and businesses around the world,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “With certification of these four new ZigBee Compliant Platforms, it made perfect sense for us to post the latest version of ZigBee earlier than our original Q1 2007 date. It is now available on www.zigbee.org for free download – just in time for the Holiday’s.”

The ZigBee Alliance will host a Developers Conference on April 3-5, 2007 in San Jose, Calif. to train attendees on the latest features and updates found in ZigBee. To register, please visit http://zigbee.org/en/events/index.asp#devconf2007.

The newly qualified Golden Unit platforms supporting the latest update of the ZigBee specification are:

Ember – EmberZNet™:
EmberZNet is a rigorously tested and field proven software stack that is now ZigBee 2006 compliant. Together with Ember’s high performance 2.4 GHz low-power wireless semiconductors – the EM250 System on Chip and EM260 ZigBee co-processor – and Ember’s golden unit platform provides the most reliable, scalable and advanced ZigBee solution. EmberZNet incorporates enhancements for robustness and ease-of-use and is supported by best in class development tools. For more information, see
http://www.ember.com/products_index.html

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Freescale – BeeStack™:
BeeStack software is based on the ZigBee 2006 specification and allows OEMs to offer consumers new technical feature capabilities including a variety of control, convenience and energy management for devices such as remote controls, thermostats and lighting control. The software stack supports Freescale’s MC1319X, MC1320X and MC1321X platforms based on the HCS08 MCU core architecture. BeeStack software is currently sampling to key OEM customers. For more information, see
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=BEEKIT_WIRELESS_CONNECTIVITY_TOOLKIT&parentCode=1321xEVK&nodeId=01J4Fs25657103

Integration Associates – IA OEM-DAUB1 USB Dongle:
The IA OEM-DAUB1 USB Dongle drivers have been updated to support the ZigBee 2006 specification. Integration Associates is a supplier of 868/915MHz and 2.4GHz ZigBee solutions and provide the only commercially available fully certified ZigBee USB dongle. The latest ZigBee drivers complement the compliant IEEE 802.15.4 interface of the dongle to provide a quick and easy way of enabling a host computer with ZigBee. The updated driver continues to be the most flexible available by maintaining support for the different ZigBee features and device types. For more information, see
http://www.integration.com/products/IA_OEM-DAUB1_2400.shtml

Texas Instruments - Z-Stack:
Texas Instrument's Z-Stack offers a ZigBee 2006 compliant platform for designers of ZigBee applications to start their development. Developers will be able to take advantage of many new features such as the home automation cluster library. Z-Stack is certified for the CC2420 stand alone transceiver and the CC2430 transceiver and microcontroller System-on-Chip. Z-Stack will be available for download by registered users in December 2006. For more information, visit http://www.ti.com/zigbee

ZigBee 2006 is optimized for use in products typically used by consumers and offers improvements and new features, simplifying application development, network management and maintenance. ZigBee 2006 uses mesh networking to communicate over the globally available 2.4 GHz frequency and 868/915 MHz technology in select countries. With digital spread spectrum technology, and the most number of channels, ZigBee networks offer superb immunity to interference. This simplicity of design and operation ensures consumers of all backgrounds can install products and maintain their network in minutes. Thanks to unique technology, a typical low-power ZigBee device runs on universally available batteries for years, eliminating the need for wiring to a power source and providing unparalleled convenience and flexibility.

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 membership comprises technology providers and original equipment manufacturers worldwide. Membership is open to all. Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org.

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