Tendril and Atmel Cooperate to Accelerate Customer Deployments of 802.15.4-Based Wireless Sensor and Control Networks

Tendril System Software Bundled with Atmel’s AVR Z-Link 802.15.4 Hardware Solution and Included in Atmel Development Kits

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Denver – October 17, 2006 – Tendril (www.tendrilinc.com), the leader in network operations platform software for customizing and deploying Wireless Sensor and Control Networks (WSCN), is cooperating with Atmel® Corporation (www.atmel.com) to accelerate and simplify customer deployments of WSCN applications. Through this relationship, Atmel and Tendril will integrate and bundle Atmel’s AVR® Z-Link™ 802.15.4/ZigBee™ hardware solution and Tendril’s first-of-its-kind network operations platform software for WSCN – enabling customers to quickly and easily integrate and deploy the Atmel wireless networking platform with IP networks, PC/PDA-based applications and other aspects of enterprise computing systems.

Tendril offers the first and only easy-to-build network operations platform for deploying, commissioning, provisioning, securing, monitoring and managing WSCNs. Tendril’s distributed platform allows organizations to fully leverage the power of WSCN implementations that integrate different types of low-power sensors/actuators with traditionally networked computing systems. The Tendril network operations platform provides an integrated server-side “broker” and device-side “agent,” along with associated network bridging software, for monitoring, managing, and integrating WSCNs. This approach allows OEMs to integrate wireless networking capabilities into their products in less than a week and provides system integrators with the ability to quickly add well-monitored WSCNs to deployments in the field.

Through this relationship, Tendril and Atmel will also collaborate on a variety of co-marketing activities, support each other’s field sales operations, and jointly provide support for the bundled solution.

“Atmel and Tendril share a commitment to providing easy-to-deploy and easy-to-use wireless networking solutions that utilize the 802.15.4 protocol, which is why this partnership is a natural extension of our long-standing collaboration. This integrated solution provides customers with a truly complete solution for deploying WSCN applications,” said Adrian Tuck, newly-appointed CEO of Tendril. “The impact that this bundled solution will make on deployment timelines is profound: OEMs that utilize the Tendril system software can integrate low-power wireless networking capabilities into their products in less than a week, rather than the months or years of labor typically necessary when using alternative approaches. In addition, OEMs get pre-built network monitoring and network management capability not included in the foundational network layer technology. By slashing months of development time from these projects and improving network monitoring and management, companies can significantly reduce costs, speed time-to-market and increase the profitability of their wireless networking initiatives.”

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Added Tuck: “Coming on the heels of our support for other leading low-power wireless radio platforms, we are now shipping product that works with a large percentage of the world’s production-volume 802.15.4-based platforms, cementing our position as the leader in this emerging WSCN software market.”

“Integration of Tendril’s system software with Atmel’s superior hardware solution is very positive news for customers who want to deploy 802.15.4-powered wireless sensor networks,” said Terry Dillahunty, Atmel’s Business Development Manager for Wireless Connectivity. “The joint Tendril-Atmel solution has a powerful value proposition and we welcome Tendril to our community of solution providers who are supporting the growing population of Atmel network platform users.”

Atmel’s solution includes its ultra low-power, high-sensitivity 2.4 GHz AT86RF230 802.15.4 radio, a choice of ultra-low-power AVR microcontrollers with flash densities of 64-, 128- or 256KB, and a small footprint, fully compliant media access control (MAC) software optimized for the AVR architecture. This chip combination consumes less than 2 uA in sleep mode and has a 103 dB link budget with an operating range of up to 2.8 times that of any 802.15.4 solution on the market today. The wider operating range means that an 802.15.4 system can be deployed with fewer nodes, significantly reducing system cost.

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) technology 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 Are®. For more information about Atmel, visit www.atmel.com.

About Tendril
Tendril is uniquely positioned to catapult the “Internet of Things” economy to critical mass by assimilating everyday electrical things into the enterprise computing environment. Our focus is on network operations and deployment – the next big stage of the Wireless Sensor and Control Network industry. We make software that allows companies to access, deploy, monitor, manage, customize and then integrate these networks into the rest of the real world. With this approach, Tendril can address the macro trends of energy efficiency, security, life expectance and connectedness that will generate new revenue streams for companies in the industrial and building automation, physical security and home automation industries. For more information about Tendril visit www.tendrilinc.com.

Atmel®, AVR®, Every Where You Are® and others are registered trademarks, Z-link™ and others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Tendril, Tendril Access and Network Operations Platform are trademarks of Tendril Networks. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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