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4me, I have read the same thing lately in a variety of recent market reports. The tech sector in general is making a comeback and will be one of the chief leaders in the overall markets in the coming 2 to 3 years. Technology has reached a point where industry is looking to renew many of their resources and systems and the current newer and more up to date technologies will be utilized during this renewal period. Zigbee will be factored into this area as its applications will be necessary in many areas. Zigbee's time is rapidly coming of age now....
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home » featured company
Airbee Wireless, Inc.
Airbee Wireless Since its founding in 2002, Airbee Wireless has become a leading provider of intelligent embedded chip software designed for low power RF mesh networks. Airbee's software stacks and application are the brains for some of the largest semiconductor company's silicon chips. All low power RF mesh networks need three things to work - First; is a low power radio, second is the microcontroller and third, Airbee's proprietary software to make it all work. This is very similar to your home computer, Dell makes the hardware but Microsoft provides the software that makes it work. Airbee's software is licensed to the leading semiconductor companies such as Texas Instruments, ZMD, Infineon, Atmel, Jennic etc.
Airbee Wireless Inc. (ABEW)
Jul 10 9:34 AM EDT
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Market Cap 14.11 m
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Documentation
* Airbee Wireless, Inc. - Executive Summary - June 2007
* Leveraging a Comprehensive Software Approach For Implementing Low-Power Wireless Mesh Networks
* Understanding The Role Of Software In Low-Power RF Mesh Networks
To accomplish our goals we have created a center of excellence in Chennai, India where we have as of January 31, 2007, 47 full-time employees, of which 5 are executive or administrative and 42 are technical (all based in India). This engineering center has developed into an industry leading RF Mesh R&D and product center. Their core competency is software code development for the use and application of microprocessors in low power RF mesh networks. We have assembled the largest team in our industry with software RF Mesh knowledge and expertise. This expertise is extremely hard to acquire and difficult to attain a mass of experienced engineers.
The team established the technological feasibility for Airbee's initial product line (the Airbee UltFirstraLite™) in November 2002 with the completion of the product design (V1.0). The working models for the Airbee UltraLite™ proprietary 900 Mhz and the UltraLite™ 2.4 GHz were delivered on March 2003 and April 2003, respectively. Airbee's standard ZigBee software was released at the end of October 2005. Airbee is leading in the continued migration of the ZigBee standard and achieved ZigBee 2006 certification for the Airbee ZNS 2006 protocol stack in Jan 2007. Airbee's ZNS 2006 is one of the first platforms to implement the latest version of the ZigBee standard and to pass independent testing by a ZigBee qualified testing lab creating the first agnostic application in use today.
Airbee software is based on the ZigBee 2006 specification and allows OEMs to offer new technical feature capabilities including controls and energy management devices such as sensors, remote controls, thermostats and lighting control. The software stack supports multiple silicon platforms such as Texas Instruments latest microcontroller the MSP430-4618, Atmel AVR family of microcontrollers, Freescale's MC1319X, MC1320X and MC1321X platforms and others. Airbee's ZNS 2006 software is currently commercially available to OEM customers. The next ZigBee specification is the ZigBee Pro standard in which Airbee has been selected as a golden unit platform for the Pro stack.
Executive Summary
Airbee's success in getting in place commercial relationships with three of the world's largest silicon companies, (Atmel, TI and Infineon), allows Airbee's software to now be accessible to thousands of developers throughout the world. We anticipate as these low power RF mesh systems (ZigBee) are commercially deployed by these Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) significant usage of our products and services will occur. As for our technical expertise, it has recently been validated by our selection as a "Golden Unit" for the next generation of ZigBee - ZigBee PRO. This exclusive group includes TI, Ember, Freescale and Airbee. We are now the benchmark for ZigBee software, which is and will continue to help us to develop commercial relationships with the major silicon companies and OEMs - this all leads to revenue for Airbee.
Airbee is the last freestanding software company in the ZigBee market and has already achieved certification to the 2004 and 2006 ZigBee standards.
The ZigBee Alliance currently consists of more than 200 companies including Airbee Wireless, Honeywell, Cellnet, Eaton, Itron, Phillips, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Comverge, Control4, DCSI, Golden Power, Johnson Controls, Legrand, Nivis, Nuri Telecom, Sensus Metering, Silver Spring Networks, Site Controls, ember, ATMEL, Texas Instruments, Talon Communications, Trilliant Networks, Tritech Technology and many others (see www.ZigBee.org for a complete list).
Airbee Differentiation and Competitive advantages
Software is the key to low power RF Mesh network deployments. Industrial applications in the RF environments tend to be very dirty and need software (brains of the silicon) to be very robust. Airbee's reliability program is called the "3Rs". The 3R program, is Robustness (resists a failure), Resilience (recovers despite a hard or soft failure), and true Reliability (continuous operation) is an industry-leading competency. Airbee's ZNS 2006 protocol stack now incorporates enhancements for the 3R's. Airbee has the engineering skills and resource depth to pioneer new solutions for Low Power RF Mesh Networks and has achieved an industry leading position with respect to certified products and the necessary reliabilities to make Airbee products, the product of choice for our customer deployments and ease-of-use.
Airbee is employing a license/royalty revenue model and to date we have executed eight (8) license agreements with companies such Texas Instruments, Infineon, ZMD, Radiocrafts and others. We are currently in the process of licensing additional large silicon companies.
Airbee is at the industry's forefront and as such leads the continued migration of the ZigBee standard (www.zigbee.org). In January 2007, Airbee achieved ZigBee 2006 certification for it ZNS 2006 protocol stack. The ZNS 2006 is one of the first platforms to implement the latest version of the ZigBee standard and to pass independent testing by a ZigBee qualified testing labs.
Financials
Size of Market:
TAM
To identify the TAM of the three focused markets, we looked at the market size for 8 & 16 bit microcontrollers (MCUs). The potential connectivity applications (see Table below) for ZigBee-optimized MCUs include consumer electronics, PC peripherals, home automation, toys and games, personal health care, and of course, industrial and commercial. In total, the ZigBee market for these three-targeted markets in terms of unit volume could reach 1.38 billion by 2008. This would make ZigBee-based MCUs far more ubiquitously or pervasively "connected" than their 32 and 64 bit big brothers.
The MCU competitors include Atmel, Microchip, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Oki, Philips, Renessas, Siemens (Infineon), ST Microelectronics, and Texas Instruments.
SAM
Thus the TAM based on our logical approach of tracking the forecast of 8 & 16 bit MCUs, would offer us the baseline. To build upon this baseline one would next have to assume the adoption rates for ZigBee within the respective target markets.
So for the Airbee target markets we discussed, we are looking, conservatively, at 63 million ZigBee devices deployed in 2007 and growing to 158.5 million in 2008.
Airbee compliance with ZigBee standard
ZigBee was created out of a need for a wireless technology that networked sensors and controlled devices given that other standards - such as Bluetooth and WLAN - have proven to be unsuitable for low power applications. Consequently, the ZigBee Alliance was created to develop a new networking technology (under the IEEE 802.15.4 standard) that would be interoperable between multiple vendors. In December 2004, ZigBee standards were approved and the technology is now an official global standard. The ZigBee Alliance currently consists of more than 200 companies throughout the world including Airbee Wireless.
ZigBee technology is essentially a two-way communication network standard that transmits at low-power (between 20-250 kbps) utilizing the spread spectrum in the 868Mhz / 900Mhz / 2.4GHz frequencies. ZigBee architecture defines the networking, security and application profiles of a chip. One of the primary drivers behind the development of ZigBee was the need for longer battery life to power wireless devices. As a result, ZigBee's low latency wireless implementation results in products that require very little power. Additionally, interference concerns are minimized by ZigBee's low spectrum utilization given that wireless usage in the market segments that benefit from ZigBee are characterized by short and low-data rate signals.
Airbee's and ZigBee's advantages are clear: its architecture is inexpensive and self-contained, and its power requirement is low. According to WEST Technology Research Solutions, LLC, "It promises to revolutionize low-end RF intercommunication for devices that are capable of regulating a network of up to 255 nodes..."
Competition
There are currently no pure-play ZigBee software companies that compete directly with Airbee. Figure 8 Wireless was a competitor until it was acquired by Chipcon, a Norwegian semiconductor company that designs and produces standard radio frequency integrated circuits for use in wireless applications. However, there are tangential competitors - primarily hardware focused - offering software solutions that are either proprietary or licensed from companies such as Airbee. It should be noted that TI purchased Chipcon in December of 2005 for approximately $200 million. The purchase price, represented a 6.4x 2005E multiple of Chipcon's 2004 revenues and - according to industry analysts - also reflected confirmation of ZigBee as a technology and its prospects.
Revenue Generation
Since our key products ar protocol stacks the key to our revenue stream is to get on the primary silicon vendors chip (Atmel, TI, Infineon, etc), the ecosystem revolves around the silicon. Our revenue chain is not only the royalties on the stack but actually more importantly is the license and royalty fees that will come from the applications and the fees for design services. The stack is just our way to enter the game with the silicon companies.
We have been successful at three of the major silicon companies, TI, ZMD and Infineon. We will be announcing shortly a license agreement with the largest microcontroller company - Atmel. We have been mentioned by TI, ZMD and Infineon and we are listed by TI as a partner on their website and TI has us in their ZigBee Application note (which is available on their web site).
The key to our revenue is not with the stack but with applications, network mgt products (ZNMS) and design services. By having the stack on the key silicon company's products we get led to the OEM opportunities and we have the door opened for us for services, applications and ultimately NMPs. It is critical that we maintain our core competency in the stack and are perceived as the leader in the PRO but it is also critical that we develop a library of applications such as SPPIO (which we charge 1.00/unit royalty for).
We will be improving upon our current marketing strategy and will be focusing on specific vertical market segments for our products with the first being location based mesh applications and the outpatient medical market. We have focused all of our money on developing and maintaining an engineering team, a real commercially viable product and have spent zero money on sales and marketing. When our funding does materialize it is our intent that we focus on sales and marketing with funding. We have not lost any market share as the Low Power Mesh market is still maturing but the time is now to aggressive market and sell our products and I look forward to have the money and resources to go make that happen.
Management Overview
Raj Sundaresan - CEO and Director
Mr. Sundaresan was previously founder and CEO of Intelligent Systems, Inc., a company that was primarily involved in customizing software. Raj has over 22 years experience in information technology related businesses and as an independent consultant to both private and government organizations as well as several Fortune 500 companies. He received an MS in Management Information Systems from American University, an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and an MS in Mathematics from Madras University, India.
E. Eugene Sharer - President, Director
Mr. Sharer was previously President and/or Chief Operating Officer of several information technology companies (including Complete Wellness Centers, Inc., ROW Sciences and Calculon Corporation). He also held executive positions with IBM, Computer Sciences and Iverson Technologies as well as a board seat with the Technology Council of Maryland. Mr. Sharer received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.
Charles Gunderson - Chief Operating Officier
Mr. Gunderson brings more than 25 years of management experience to his role as Chief Operating Officer of Airbee. During his career, he has held the titles of vice president, general manager, and other senior management positions at several leading high-tech firms, including Tektronix, Calcomp, Epson America, Trimble Navigation, and DriveCam. He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Oregon State University, and an MBA from The Wharton School. He has authored or co-authored many technical and business process patent applications throughout his career.
Veeravanallur Sundaram - CEO of Airbee Wireless (India) Pvt. Ltd
Mr. Sundaram was previously Managing Director and CEO of Covansys Corporation's Offshore Operations. Prior to his tenure at Covansys Corp., Mr. Sundaram worked for British Petroleum for 20 years in a variety of positions covering systems, transportation, chemicals, pipeline operations, operations analysis, strategic planning and M&A. He received a BS in Physics and Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MBA from Case Western University.
Ram Satagopan - Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Satagopan previously served as CEO of Connexus Technologies (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. which was acquired by Airbee in 2002. Prior to joining Airbee, Ram worked for over 17 years with companies selling telecom software products, most recently serving as a Technology Director of Motorola Electronics - Singapore. He led product teams to roll-out wireless products for Motorola worldwide and also played a key role in the deployment of ISCLAP (an Indian standard code for paging) paging protocol standard for the Indian market. Ram holds more than 10 patents in wireless communications, embedded designs and consumer electronics. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Annamalai University in India and an MS in Management Technology from the Graduate School of Business at the National University of Singapore.
David L. McCartney - Vice President, Marketing and Sales
Mr. McCartney has many years experience in the wireless technology space in both corporate executive and marketing positions. Prior to joining Airbee Wireless, he was the founder - and principal consultant - of m2direct, Inc and also served in senior marketing positions at Wavecom, Inc. and Bosch Telecom. Mr. McCartney also worked as an Executive Vice President of RangeStar Wireless, Inc. and as Director in various units of Ericsson, Inc. including the International Business Development group. Mr. McCartney was also a Divisional Marketing Director for Motorola, Inc. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Administration from Iowa State University and an MBA from Lynchburg College.
Mal Gurian - Director
Mr. Gurian is currently CEO of Mal Gurian Associates and has served as CEO of several leading communication companies. Most recently, he was the co-founder and Chairman of Authentix Network. He has served as a corporate and strategic advisor to major corporations including OKI, Sony, TRW and the communications division of Murata. He is President Emeritus of the Radio Club of America and the recipient of the club's Sarnoff Citation, the Special Service Award and the Fred Link Mobile Award. Mr. Gurian is also the recipient of the National Association of Business and Educational radio's (now the PCIA) highest honor, the Chairman's Award.
Conclusion: Airbee Differentiation
Software is the key to real world low power RF Mesh network deployments. In industrial applications the RF environments tend to be very dirty and the need for the software (brains of the silicon) to be very robust has lead Airbee to a reliability program called the 3Rs. Focused on real world deployments it's 3R program, which is Robustness (resists a failure), Resilience (recovers despite a hard or soft failure), and true Reliability (continuous operation) are an industry-leading competency. Airbee's ZNS 2006 protocol stack now incorporates enhancements for the 3R's. So the real reason for Airbee lies in two critical reasons - first is that we have the engineering skills and resource depth to pioneer these new solutions for Low Power RF Mesh Networks, but also we have achieved an industry leading position with respect to certified products and the corporation of the necessary reliability to make Airbee's products the product of choice by our customers for real world deployments and ease-of-use
TI’s Z-Stack protocol software is designed to the ZigBee 2006 specification and supports multiple platforms, including the CC2431, CC2430, and CC2420+MSP430 platform. The Z-Stack has been awarded the ZigBee Alliance’s golden unit status by the ZigBee test house TÜV Rheinland and is used by thousands of ZigBee developers worldwide.
Looks like they could have the "kick butt" software now at this point. Should be interesting to see what transpires in the next few months..
Take care 4me and Godbless...See ya in a few weeks.
I am sure when we get our financing in the next few weeks we will see 65-70 cents..... Looking forward to see if any of their development work will reap some rewards pretty soon???
You are right about that 4me. The lawyers are the ones who always win in these type of situations..
What issues then are left for potential litigation 4me and Atco, in your opinions of course???
NEW YORK, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 7, Gene Sharer, President of
Airbee Wireless, Inc. (Pink Sheets: ABEW) updated the investment community
in an exclusive interview with http://www.wallst.net . Topics covered in the
interview include an overview of the Company and the markets it serves,
recent press releases, current capitalization, upcoming strategic and
financial milestones.
To hear the interview in its entirety, visit http://www.wallst.net , and click
on "Interviews." Interviews require free registration, and can be accessed
either by locating the respective company's ticker symbol under the
appropriate exchange on the left-hand column of the "Interviews" section of
the site, or by entering the respective company's ticker symbol in the
Search Archive window.
About Airbee Wireless, Inc.
Airbee is an innovator of intelligent software solutions for unwired
voice, data and video networking. Products include embedded software,
management platform, development tools and services. Airbee technology is
licensed by OEMs, silicon providers and integrators. All products are
designed and engineered to comply with ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 global
standards. Airbee technology offers affordability, greater flexibility and
shorter time to market, unlike anything else now available. To learn more
about Life Unwired(TM) with Airbee technology inside, please call +1 (301)
517-1860.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050927/LATU121LOGO )
About WallSt.net
http://www.wallst.net is owned and operated by WallStreet Direct, Inc., a
wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Media Group, Inc. The website is a
leading provider of financial news, media, tools and community-driven
applications for investors. http://www.wallst.net offers visitors free membership
to its in-depth executive interviews, exclusive editorial content, breaking
news, and several proprietary applications. In addition to its website,
WallStreet Direct organizes investor conferences, publishes a newspaper,
and provides multimedia advertising solutions to small and mid-sized
publicly traded companies. We are expecting to receive one hundred seventy
five dollars from Airbee Wireless, Inc. for the dissemination of this press
release. For a complete list of our advertisers, and advertising
relationships, visit http://www.wallst.net/disclaimer/disclaimer.asp
Here is the best article I have seen on a Zigbee explanation basis...Also to date over 23,000 download requests for the zigbee specification have been processed..
Simple Networks Will Free Many Sensors From Wires
By Dan Strassberg
April 13, 2006
EDN.com
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6321525.html?industryid=2814
With a suitable protocol, such as Zigbee, sensors that don't have a lot to say or hear needn't consume much energy to keep in touch. Sometimes, an alkaline cell can provide all the power they need for as long as a decade.
The folks at the ZigBee Alliance, the industry organization driving ZigBee WPAN (wireless-personal-area-networking) technology, mean it when they say that they've learned valuable lessons from the miscues of the proponents of another such technology: Bluetooth. Bluetooth is now well-established and is here for the long haul—at least in the narrowly targeted market niche of wireless headsets for cell phones and portable entertainment devices. However, its advocates' early misadventures with creeping elegance almost sank the standard while it was still in its formative stages and certainly delayed its widespread deployment. The lesson: In this era of wireless everything, trying to be all things to all people is an almost-sure-fire recipe for failure.
ZigBee's creators based it on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless-communication standard and named it for the zigzag "dance" that honeybees use to communicate the location and distance of sources of nectar. It is a technology that knows its place. It targets sensors, but not even all sensors—just low-speed devices that need to send data no more often than about once per second. There are several reasons for this focus: If a sensor is to be wireless, eliminating the signal wiring doesn't accomplish much if power wiring is still necessary. So, at least initially, most ZigBee sensors will be battery-powered. Most sensors are small, suggesting that battery-powered versions must not be much larger. Therefore, the batteries need to be small, and small batteries store only modest amounts of energy.
To achieve acceptable battery life, the sensors and their communication circuits must therefore use power sparingly. The most straightforward way to achieve this goal is to minimize the duty cycle—in this case, the percentage of time that a device is on the air. When not communicating, the device is in a low-power sleep mode. Most sensors generate messages that last only a few milliseconds at 802.15.4's data rate of 250 kbps at 2.4 to approximately 2.48 GHz. The rates are 40 and 20 kbps, respectively, at 902 to 928 MHz and 868 to 870 MHz. Because the transition from sleep mode to data transmission takes approximately 15 msec, a sensor that sends, on average, one message per second usually operates at a duty cycle of 2% or less in the 2.4-GHz band and little more in the 868- and 915-MHz bands. Many sensors send messages much less often. For these sensors, the duty cycle is so low that the battery life can essentially equal the battery's shelf life: as long as 10 years for alkaline cells.
Solid rationale
The rationale for having a standard for networks of wireless sensors is a lot more serious than, "Everything is going wireless these days, so why not sensors?" Many applications involve large numbers of sensors. In such cases, the cost of mounting and wiring the sensors can greatly exceed the cost of the sensors themselves. Of course, ZigBee doesn't address the not entirely facetious issue of having sensors fly unaided to and then perch at the spot where you'd like them mounted, so part of the cost of sensor installation remains even with wireless sensors.
ZigBee targets a wide range of building-automation, industrial, medical, and residential-control and -monitoring applications. Applications that require IEEE 802.15.4's interoperability, RF characteristics, or both can benefit from ZigBee. Examples include: lighting controls; remote reading of electric, gas, and water meters; wireless smoke- and carbon-monoxide detectors; HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) and environmental controls; home security, intrusion, and motion detectors; blind, drapery, and shade controls; medical sensing and monitoring; universal remote control of set-top boxes that include home-control functions; and industrial and building automation. The first ZigBee products—for home-control, -safety, and -security applications—should appear in stores by midyear. Packaging for these products will prominently display the ZigBee logo.
The ZigBee specification overlays network-, security-, application-framework-, and application-profile layers atop 802.15.4's PHY (physical) and MAC (media-access-control) layers. The 802.15.4 standard's 2.4-GHz version is usable in unlicensed bands worldwide. It specifies O-QPSK (offset-quadrature-phase-shift-keying) modulation with half-sine pulse shaping, which is equivalent to MSK (minimum-shift keying). Each symbol carries 2 bits, channel spacing is 5 MHz, and there can be as many as 16 channels. Although devices do not frequency-hop among the channels, selecting channels can often optimize reception. To minimize interference among the networked devices and—in conjunction with other techniques—to enhance data security, the 2.4-GHz version also uses 2M-chip/sec DSSS (direct-sequence-spread-spectrum) coding. The less-than-1-GHz versions use BPSK (bipolar phase-shift keying) with root-raised-cosine pulse shaping and, in the 915-MHz version, 2-MHz channel spacing. (The 868-MHz band has room for only one channel.) BPSK transmits only 1 bit per symbol. In the 868-MHz (largely European) and the 915-MHz (western hemisphere plus Australian) versions, respectively, the data rates are 20 and 40 kbps, and the DSSS chip rates are 300k and 600k chips/sec.
In all three bands, the 802.15.4 MAC layer uses CSMA/CA (carrier-sense multiple access with collision avoidance)—fundamentally the same mechanism that Ethernet uses. A device that wants to transmit wakes from sleep mode and first listens for activity on its channel. If it detects activity, it goes back to sleep for a random interval and then reawakens and again listens for activity. If it hears none, it sends its message. Of course, two or more devices can be listening simultaneously—in preparation for sending data. Several of them might incorrectly conclude that the coast is clear and begin transmitting at the same time.
Message gets through
According to ZigBee Alliance members, because of the DSSS coding, the chances are good that the messages will get through despite the interfering transmissions. But if a sender does not receive an acknowledgment, it goes back to sleep for a random period and then tries again to send its message. The obvious problem with CSMA/CA is its nondeterministic latency. That is, system designers can't be certain how long any message will take to reach its intended recipient. However, as Ethernet proved decades ago, when it was much slower than it is today, the scheme works admirably in many common applications. Also, the longer you can wait for a response, the greater the likelihood that the system can meet your needs.
For those who must have deterministic latency, however, the IEEE standard provides two additional mechanisms that together guarantee it within a tight tolerance. Beacons are special messages that are permitted in certain ZigBee network topologies. Beacons wake up client devices, which listen for their address and go back to sleep if they don't receive it. It is possible to designate times, separated by multiples of 15.38 msec to a maximum of 252 sec, when the devices must listen for beacons. A beacon can announce a superframe, another kind of special message, which provides 16 time slots between beacons. During these slots, designated devices receive contention-free network access.
The ZigBee Alliance's slogan or position statement is "Wireless control that just works." From all indications available at this early date, ZigBee is living up to that slogan, but it took a lot of work and technology to make wireless control "just work." Version 1.0 of the ZigBee specification, which you can download at no charge from the Alliance Web site, runs 426 pages, and the PDF file fills almost 8 Mbytes. Moreover, the spec does not deal with the PHY and MAC issues that the 5-Mbyte, 679-pg IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard covers. In other words, even though ZigBee is a well-focused, low-power, relatively low-speed protocol, its developers have invested a huge amount of effort to ensure that users find that it works without wheel-spinning or fuss.
One aspect of wireless-communication protocols that should concern all potential users is data security. Although you may wonder how much harm an interloper outside your house could do if he were able to, say, find out—or even change—the setting of your downstairs thermostat, the stakes are a lot higher in industrial and commercial applications. And, even in the home-thermostat example, the interloper might be able to cause very expensive mischief, such as frozen water pipes. ZigBee's DSSS coding provides a first level of security, but ZigBee also uses a security-toolbox approach to ensure reliable and secure networks. Access-control lists, packet-freshness timers, and 128-bit encryption based on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)-certified Advanced Encryption Standard help to protect data transmission and ZigBee networks themselves.
ZigBee profiles
A cornerstone of ZigBee is the profile, an example of which is home-control lighting. The initial version of this profile permits a series of six device types to exchange control messages to form a wireless home-automation application. These devices exchange well-known messages to effect control, such as turning a lamp on or off, sending a light-sensor measurement to a lighting controller, or sending an alert message if an occupancy sensor detects movement. Another example is the device profile that defines actions common to ZigBee devices. For example, wireless networks rely on autonomous devices' ability to join a network and to discover other networked devices and the services they offer. The device profile supports device and service discovery.
The ZigBee specification allows device manufacturers to establish proprietary profiles that implement features you won't find in other manufacturers' products. The Alliance intends, however, that such proprietary features shouldn't prevent devices from different manufacturers from operating together in networks. That is, devices that implement proprietary profiles should still perform their basic functions even if other network devices lack features that the proprietary devices need to implement their unique capabilities.
The ZigBee-platform portion of a ZigBee device implements the RF- and baseband-communication functions. Although multichip ZigBee platforms are currently common, expect the most common platform configurations to soon use one chip—not the identical design in all platforms, but a single chip from any of several suppliers. Different manufacturers' platform chips, which are expected to cost approximately $5 each in production quantities, will differ in detail and depending on whether the intended use is at 2.4 GHz or at 868/915 MHz. Despite these differences, however, the ICs will perform all of the functions that are related to ZigBee but aren't specific to particular applications. Besides the RF functions, these chips will contain a processor and sufficient nonvolatile rewritable—that is, flash—memory to hold the ZigBee software stack.
Software, of course, plays a central role in ZigBee, and you can make a good case that no implementation of a software-dependent protocol is complete without a way of performing software upgrades. However, in a wireless environment, such upgrades present special problems that designers must work through in advance of deployment.
Except in high-volume applications, for which it sometimes makes sense to integrate the application-specific functions with ZigBee-platform functions, expect the application-specific functions to reside on a second chip. An industry is developing to provide ZigBee-platform modules, which contain the platform chip and additional circuitry, such as clock crystals, for example, to support that chip. Some of these modules provide features for prototyping the application-specific portion of the final device; others that target use in volume production lack prototyping features.
Difficult question
A frequently asked question about ZigBee is: "What is the range of the transmissions?" Although the short answer is 10 to 100m, it is much easier to ask this question than to answer it. A thorough answer depends not only on whether the network operates at 2.4 GHz or below 1 GHz, but also on whether the networked devices are indoors or outside. Other factors include whether they operate at 0 dBm, which is the most common power and which ZigBee chips directly support, or at a higher power. The maximum is 20 dBm, but it requires an amplifier external to the ZigBee chip. The most important variable is how many hops the data makes before reaching its destination.
Although the 2.4-GHz band offers higher data rates than do the 868- and 915-MHz bands, advocates of the less-than-1-GHz frequency, such as ZMD (www.zmd.biz), say that transmission at the lower frequencies is more reliable because fewer users produce interference in the less-than-1-GHz bands and because problems with signal absorption and reflection are less severe at the lower frequencies. Therefore, the lower frequency devices can often operate at lower power.
The ZigBee NWK (network layer) supports star, tree, and mesh topologies. Network devices can relay messages from other network devices. In a star topology, a ZigBee coordinator controls the network. The coordinator initiates and maintains the network devices; all other devices are end devices, which directly communicate with the coordinator. In mesh and tree topologies, the coordinator starts the network and chooses certain key network parameters. ZigBee routers can extend the network. In tree networks, routers move data and control messages through the network using a hierarchical- routing strategy. Tree networks can use beacon-oriented communication. Mesh networks allow full peer-to-peer communication.
Tracking assets during inventory is an interesting application in which ZigBee may be more useful than the technology usually associated with the application: RFID (radio-frequency identification). RFID tags are passive; they receive the energy they use to respond to a query from the RF signal that issues the query. The problem is that the device that sends the query must usually be no more than about 3m from the RFID tag that provides the response. If you are, say, trying to locate test instruments in a large R&D or manufacturing complex, this characteristic presents a Catch-22: It doesn't make much sense to have to know where an item is to find it! A ZigBee network, however, can track the locations of instruments throughout a large campus. Each instrument must have a ZigBee platform, which is more expensive than an RFID tag, but, within the first year, the labor savings during inventory or when the calibration lab must retrieve instruments for calibration might easily exceed the ZigBee platform's cost differential.
Tortoise over hare
ZigBee's progress in industrial applications probably won't set speed records, but the technology is likely to win the race over competing technologies in the same way that the fabled tortoise triumphed over the hare—slowly and steadily. For example, it will take a good while before ZigBee can demonstrate the "five-nines" (99.999%) uptime that many industrial applications require. A major reason that such demonstrations will take time is the protocol's low speed when users apply it as its developers intend. Transaction-based applications measure ZigBee's speed not in transactions per second but in transactions per minute, per hour, or even per month. Moreover, in predicting the reliability of real-world applications, you must deal with statistics and probability. Thus, it can take many months to demonstrate with high confidence that an application is subject to no more than one error per month. In the test community, the speed issue has led some to believe that validation protocols based on bit- or frame-error rates are inappropriate for ZigBee and that tests based on EVM (error-vector magnitude) will more quickly yield accurate answers. Still, the warm initial reception the industry has accorded to ZigBee technology is encouraging Alliance members. Developers downloaded more than 18,000 copies of the ZigBee specification in its first year after publication.
Another issue that enters the thinking of prospective ZigBee users in industry is ZigBee devices' dependence on batteries. ZigBee ICs that have the wherewithal to measure the state of charge of the batteries that supply their power and routines for sending alarm messages shortly before batteries need replacement are among those that development-tool suppliers provide for embedding in the ZigBee stack. Nevertheless, if locating a ZigBee sensor in just the right spot required extraordinary effort, users would likely postpone battery replacement until the battery died and caused a possibly expensive failure.
Several techniques for extending battery life or eliminating batteries come to mind. If you can embed more intelligence in the sensor so that it can—without consuming much energy—make data-dependent decisions independently without involving remote system elements, you can reduce the sensor's need to communicate and reduce the need for much of the energy that communication uses. However, such smart sensors present not only a formidable hardware-design problem, but also significant software-design challenges.
A different approach involves getting small amounts of energy from the environment through a panoply of techniques known as energy harvesting. For example, in a well-lit factory or office, solar cells might power a ZigBee device. A ZigBee light switch might obtain its energy from the movement of the toggle and store it in an ultracapacitor. (Light switches that need no ac connections do make sense! They can reduce wiring costs and simplify changes in office layouts.) Perhaps manufacturers can harvest energy from the stray ac magnetic fields surrounding wires that deliver power to motors and office machines. And they can harvest energy from the vibrations of production machinery.
You Go Charts!!
Broadband faces watershed year in 2006
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Broadband wireless technology should flourish in 2006, a research group said Wednesday.
In its report on broadband wireless markets, Northern Sky Research said that next year will see a number of key developments in the industry, including the launch of WiMax, or long-distance wireless broadband technology, by mid-2006.
"After years of planning and industry efforts, the market is poised to see the entrance of WiMax, UWB (ultra wide band wireless communications technology), and ZigBee (home automation networks) over the next 12 months. These new technologies are set to target specific personal and metro access market opportunities, with the promise of high performance, eventual low costs, and interoperability," Christopher Baugh, head of NSR, said in a news release.
"With over 1.2 billion (third-generation technology) subscribers projected by 2010, it is clear that 3G will be the leading broadband wireless technology over the next 5 years in this increasingly competitive market," Baugh said.
ABEW 10Q is out: This from RB Board
10Q is out:
Revenues of $725K from Identity vs. $0
And this - read last paragraph:
During the second quarter of 2005, we established the Airbee Automotive Group which merged with Identity, Inc., a distributor of wireless automotive anti-theft devices to America’s more than 22,000 new car dealerships. Using advanced short-range wireless technology, Identity’s products provide total immobilization of a vehicle’s ignition system to prevent theft. Identity’s current nationwide customer base includes dealerships for General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Saturn, Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Infiniti, Honda, Acura, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, and Kia. Following the merger, we reorganized our business units to bring all major product groups in line with our strategy to design, engineer and deliver complete embedded software solutions for short range wireless communications and provide wireless product applications to the automotive sector. (See “Note 3 Business Segment Information” in the Notes to Consolidated Condensed Financial Statements). The discussion below and the results of operations for our two business units in this MD&A are presented under the new organizational structure, and all prior period amounts have been restated to conform to the new presentation.
Companies tend to compete in the same or similar innovative arenas, especially in new products such as ZigBee based software. By investing in underserved areas, such as automotive anti-theft devices and asset tracking and management, we believe that it is possible to yield a greater return on innovation investment. Building innovation topographies can, we believe, reveal technical and marketing patterns in our industry that show where Airbee can differentiate itself from the competition. In this case, it means various automotive applications and asset management that rely upon our core expertise—embedded communications software and the network tools to manage the products into which that software is embedded.
Our business model is designed to get Airbee’s embedded software inside an application (i.e., automotive anti-theft devices and asset management devices inside networks) that we can manage and use as a platform for other Airbee product sales, such as asset tracking and management with our Airbee ZNMS ™ (ZigBee Network Management System). Tech-centric innovation only generates feature-ridden products that can frustrate users. We believe that user-centric innovation generates products that users will readily buy, such as automotive anti-theft devices sold by auto dealers and asset tracking for auto dealers, financial institutions that provide floor planning and insurance companies that want to securely manage multi-million dollar inventories.
By partnering with Texas Instruments, Radiocrafts, GMAC, Tricor Automotive Group and thousands of multi-store automobile dealerships, we can extend our embedded communications software and anti-theft device markets and our core brands (i.e., Airbee ™ and Identity ® ). Partnerships such as these extend our sales and distribution networks nationally and globally.
Sounds very interesting....
Hi Atco, The date was July 19, 2005 from mobilepipeline.com
Understand the ZigBee Spec
Here is a little info that describes the Zigbee spec and its uses quite nicely. Keep in mind that this does not cover all potential applications processes that are/will be possible..EOM
By Jon Adams, Freescale Semiconductor Courtesy of Wireless Net DesignLine
Building wireless into an application isn't a simple thing—it takes an understanding of radio performance, propagation, modulation, coding, protocol, and more to make a good wireless link. It's no wonder that so many designers throw up their hands in despair when attempting to get rid of a simple serial connection. Until recently, the wireless choices were either expensive, proprietary, and ill-suited to the developer's need, or less expensive, proprietary, with no hope of broader interoperability, etc. However, ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 may put an end to those problems.
The ZigBee Alliance is a rapidly growing, open alliance of over 160 companies that have a common goal, namely cost-effective, simple, ubiquitous wireless connectivity between nearly any devices. Cost-effective means that uncomplicated products at retail could be $20 or less. Simple means that the time it takes from idea to engineering sample is measured in work-weeks, not work-years. And ubiquitous means that if the solution meets the first two requirements, then nearly anything that has sensing ability or control needs can be made wireless effectively and quickly.
IEEE 802.15.4: the wheels and chassis for ZigBee wireless
Many of the individuals that work Alliance members are also voters in the IEEE 802 standards group, specifically the 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networking group. Through their efforts over the past five or so years, these engineers created the 802.15.4 wireless standard which serves as the basis of ZigBee, and made sure that the world had an open, wireless standard that made good on broad applicability, low-cost, and low complexity. Because of their efforts, there are already many silicon radio platform vendors building and selling 802.15.4 radios with competition heating up and driving down prices. While at first generation silicon right now, the prices are already on par with current fourth-generation Bluetooth silicon, primarily because of ZigBee technology's lower complexity (Fig. 1).
1. ZigBee technology sits on top of the IEEE radio.
IEEE 802.15.4 is the undercarriage of the ZigBee vehicle, so ZigBee networking counts on the IEEE standard to deliver the robustness and reliability that one expects from a wireless network. Developed to be a low-duty cycle, acknowledgement-based protocol, the spec brings together multiple RF channels in the 868-, 915-, and 2400-MHz bands. While the lower bands have some attractive performance characteristics, it's the 2400-MHz band that attracted the most interest, not only because of the worldwide availability of that band for unlicensed operation, but also because of the performance of the products developed for that band (Fig. 2).
2. Shown are the available channels and the unlicensed nature of each band..
ZigBee wireless technology takes advantage of the robustness inherent in the IEEE radio and layers upon it a strong mesh network that can self-form and self-heal, route messages quickly and accurately, provide interoperability mechanisms and testing capabilities to ensure that like devices can talk to like devices, and that all devices have can take advantage of the ZigBee network. The network functions allow for three device classes, the coordinator, the router, and end device. There are some important differences in the home space for these devices. The coordinator, of which only one is needed per network, sets up the initial address space and network configuration.
Profiles and device descriptions
ZigBee specifies how a device, like a light switch, must behave in a given environment. These behaviors are in documents published by the Alliance and available on the Web. The Alliance divides up functionality according to markets. For example, the home space differs from the industrial controls space, as installing a control/sensor network in a home presumes a different competence than would be expected in an industrial setting. The home space must be consumer-friendly, and that means OEMs can't expect consumers to have knowledge of (or even care about) networking, radios, device functionality, etc. It must be simple to be successful, yet with the right features presented in a straightforward manner so that consumers won't return it after the out-of-the-box experience.
The ZigBee Web site provides the necessary documentation to develop an application. For example, the Home-Control-Lighting (HCL) profile document specifies the overall home control lighting environment, types of devices, and cluster IDs used to transmit information. The HCL Switch-Remote-Control (SRC) specifies the required ZigBee-specific physical device I/Os. These two documents, available to the general public, provide the core of what the device needs to do to be considered a ZigBee product.
Designing a ZigBee product
As an example design, let's choose a battery-operated, remote-control light pad with one push button for the home controls space. Note that the device uses the Simple Binding process. In the SRC device document (Figure 6b) we discover that the OnOffSRC cluster has an attribute called OnOff, with three possible data values. 0x00 specifies OFF, 0xFF specifies ON, and 0xF0 means TOGGLE (if it was on, turn it off, and vice-versa). For the simple light switch, we'll use only the TOGGLE value, because we've only got a momentary switch on a faceplate. The code will issue a ZigBee packet that specifies the Cluster ID of 0x13 and a data value of 0xF0 every time the button is pushed (Fig. 3).
3. Taken from the HCL Profile document, this figure diagrams the SRC device, with the mandatory and optional interfaces.
According to the specification (paragraph 1.4.2.2 End Device Bind Overview), simple binding means: Provides the ability for an application to support "simple binding" where user intervention is employed to identify command/control device pairs. Typical usage would be where a user is asked to push buttons on two devices for installation purposes.
This is an intuitive method of binding and one that's used in many applications. In our light-switch product, this method may be cast as an instruction to the user: "Hold down the button on the remote light switch for five seconds, then push the bind button on the master home controller within 60 seconds." There could also be other physical instantiations of the required approach, but it's always essentially the same.
The binding comes from user physical input to both the device that can issue the command (the switch) and the device that will respond to the command (the load control). This binding information will then be stored, at a minimum, in the ZigBee coordinator assigned to the network, and may also be stored in the end devices as a fallback.
Keeping the task as straightforward and simple as practical, you may choose to start with someone else's ZigBee Compliant Platform, where they've already demonstrated to the Alliance that the silicon platform with the appropriate software meets the Alliance's technical specification requirements. As of April 2005, four manufacturers offered a compliant platform.
Using the development tools provided by the silicon vendor or a third party, craft the ZigBee-specific parts of the application code while maintaining your overall look and feel that differentiates your product from others on the market. Spend the majority of your time on how the product interacts with the user. Using a compliant platform allows you to not worry as much about the other required "under the hood" parts.
Interoperability and Certification Testing
Before releasing the product, the designer should check to ensure that it interoperates with other ZigBee devices, first at a basic IEEE 802.15.4 level, then at a ZigBee network level, and finally at the device profile and description level. The Alliance schedules quarterly interoperability events called ZigFests, in which developers can perform interoperability and functionality testing in a secure environment.
Once the product reaches engineering sample stage in its final form factor, it's time to bring it to a ZigBee Alliance certified test house to verify its adherence to the chosen profile. This is an important step and necessary for two reasons: 1) You want your customers to know that the product is compatible with other ZigBee-certified products in their environment, and 2) The Alliance wants to ensure that a product that wearing the ZigBee logo has been checked for adherence to the same specs that other similar devices have undergone. Certification is a two-way street, one that benefits both the developer and the consumer.
For the simple battery-operated light switch, the certification testing is probably less than a day's work at a test house. But in those six to eight hours, many things are checked. It starts with quick spot checks, like RF frequency and basic functionality, like whether the product works on all the frequencies allocated for that band, whether the modulation is clean enough, whether the range is sufficient, and so on. Once the basic functional tests have been completed, the majority of the effort is spent making sure that the device under test meets the requirements of both the ZigBee profile and device description documents. The testing wraps up with a written report and the developer and Alliance notified that a light switch has successfully passed the certification testing.
After receiving the certification notification, the developer may request the use of the ZigBee logo for that particular product. The developer must supply the product part number and as long as the Alliance has proof from the test house that the product passed the certification testing and the developer has demonstrated interoperability at least at one ZigFest, the Alliance can issue authorization for logo usage.
Because it's a wireless device, the developer must also ensure that it meets the radio regulatory rules for the countries in which it'll be sold or used. For the U.S. and Canada, that means at a minimum getting transmitter testing done at an FCC/IC-certified test house. Fortunately for the developer, the ZigBee-authorized test houses are also regulatory type-certification test houses, as are many other companies. This testing is generally lengthier than the ZigBee certification testing, but for a simple device, not much more so. This testing is a requirement for all wireless devices sold commercially, whether ZigBee or not.
About the author
Jon Adams is the director of radio technology for Freescale Semiconductor's Wireless Mobile Systems Group. He's also a member of the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors. Adams can be reached at jta@freescale.com.
Zigbee Home automation products are starting to become available for the avarage consumer now. This soon to be larger scale infusion should serve to get the word out of the possibilities to the average consumer which should help drive the knowledge of, hence the demand for these products fairly soon.
Company creates futuristic home network
Wireless links among entertainment, lighting, climate-control systems become more affordable.
By Nick Bunkley / The Detroit News
Control4
Location: Salt Lake City with dealers in Metro Detroit
Product: Wireless home networking
Price: $595 and up
To find a dealer or more information: www.control4.com
Source: Control4
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Wouldn't it be great if the living room lights automatically dimmed when you start watching a movie?
Or if smoke detectors could sound an alarm, show you the best escape route and turn off the furnace to stop smoke from spreading?
Networking different electronic devices within a home is already possible, and it's becoming less expensive than you might think.
One company, Salt Lake City-based Control4, recently began selling products that can wirelessly link home entertainment equipment and lighting for about $800. More expensive models allow connections to motorize blinds, climate controls and other devices.
"That would have historically been tens of thousands of dollars," said Eric Smith, Control4 co-founder and chief technology officer. "The focus of this is really to get it so regular people can afford it."
Control4 has signed up several dealers in Metro Detroit, including Audio Video Alternatives in Royal Oak. The store plans to set up a display next week to give customers a feel for the system's capabilities.
"It is a very cool product," said co-owner Jim Sanfemio. "It's like on the Jetsons."
Control4 was the first company to design its products around a new wireless networking standard called Zigbee, which has less power than the type commonly used to connect computers and printers but a much greater range. Zigbee is greatly expanding the benefits of home networking while dramatically reducing the cost, said Erik Michielsen, a research director at technology research firm ABI Research in Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Because it's wireless, existing homes can be retrofitted without having to cut into walls. As costs come down even more, Michielsen said, consumers will be able to pick up home automation equipment at electronics retailers like they would buy a TV or microwave.
"A lot of this home automation stuff has been out there for years but it's been available only for technology enthusiasts or luxury homes," Michielsen said. "Now you're working toward a more standardized, plug-and-play environment."
The proliferation of wireless computer networks and digitization has paved the way for Control4's products. Many consumers now are accustomed to playing digital music files and using digital video recorders instead of carrying around videotapes and CDs.
During a demonstration to Detroit-area dealers last week, Smith, who previously owned a company that networked electronics in many celebrities' homes, showed how users of Control4's products can select any CD or DVD from their collection with a touch-panel display or remote control. Music can be sent wirelessly to different rooms, and starting a movie can cause the lights to dim and blinds to close.
Most actions are controlled from a central server that forms the backbone of the system. To control lighting, standard switches must be replaced by Control4's version, which costs $99 each.
Kurt Von Eberstein, manager of Digital by Design, a custom home theater shop in Southfield, said Control4's products perform similarly to systems made by AMX and Creston Electronics, which he has installed in million-dollar-plus homes. He's hoping to persuade area builders to include Control4 networking setups in new houses as an add-on similar to hardwood floors or a fireplace.
"It's perfect for a level of the home-buying public that has been interested in this in the past, but when I have told them the pricing they've had to back down," Von Eberstein said. "I'd love to do it at my house."
You can reach Nick Bunkley at (313) 222-2293 or nbunkley@detnews.com.
I reposted this article as it really shows a bit of the potential that is starting to unfold and rapidly gaining ground.
Avoiding Bluetooth's missteps
ZigBee backers are focusing on low-cost, low-power wireless networks
Russ Arensman -- Electronic Business, 3/1/2005
Supporters of the ZigBee wireless networking standard claim to have learned a few lessons from the missteps of another wireless rival, Bluetooth. "We looked critically at Bluetooth and learned a lot from that," says Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, which represents 120 semiconductor, software and systems companies backing the new standard.
Heile, who is also chief technology officer for Appairent Technologies, vows that when the first ZigBee-certified products hit the market this year, they will work properly together, thanks to two years of careful development. Bluetooth, in contrast, was rushed to market with interoperability problems that took a year to resolve.
Bluetooth also used a proprietary radio initially developed by Ericsson, while ZigBee opted for IEEE 802.15.4, an existing radio standard. "We decided our value add [as a standards group] was going to be in creating the software, not the radio," says Heile.
ZigBee's backers have tried to avoid the hype that accompanied Bluetooth's launch, keeping a fairly low profile until their standard was ratified in December. They've also sought to keep ZigBee focused on its primary goal: providing low-cost, low-power wireless networking. Initial ZigBee devices should cost about $5, with prices eventually falling to less than $1.
Most alliance members are concentrating on building automation, where the technology's affordability and low power needs should help it win wide use in everything from security, lighting, heating and air conditioning systems to appliances, utility meters and industrial machinery.
Based on "mesh network" technology, ZigBee's transmitters and receivers detect each other's signals and organize connections between themselves, automatically expanding or contracting the network as new devices enter (assuming they are properly authorized) or leave the area. If some devices, or "nodes" are disabled or their signal is blocked, others adapt and find new routes to keep communicating. The technology's unusual name is derived from a similar adaptive pattern: the zigzag flight path of a bumblebee.
These self-adapting capabilities simplify network administration and make possible extremely complex networks. Big commercial buildings could ultimately use as many as 40,000 ZigBee nodes, he says, while home networks could have 100. Home users, for instance, might use a ZigBee sensor at every window or exterior door as part of a security system.
Harbor Research President Glen Allmendinger calls ZigBee "a significant long-term opportunity" for the electronics industry. "There hasn't been a standard to date that really addressed the issue of low data rate and low power consumption," he says.
Allmendinger says ZigBee networks could transform many industries by enabling smarter, real-time asset-management and supply chains. Food suppliers, for example, could use ZigBee technology to monitor the temperature of shipments. Building managers could save huge amounts of energy by using ZigBee to switch off lights and air-conditioning in unused rooms. "None of this is going to happen overnight," he concedes. "It definitely has to get validated and people have to get comfortable with it."
ABI Research estimates 1 million ZigBee devices will be shipped worldwide in 2005, climbing to 80 million in 2006. Harbor Research expects a more modest 400,000 ZigBee chip shipments in 2005, but expects a similarly fast growth trajectory, with 100 million units shipped in 2008 and more than 1 billion annually by the end of the decade.
ZigBee's recently approved technical specification includes a physical layer (PHY) and medium access controller (MAC) as well as network, security and application-services layers. One of its appeals is how simply all that is implemented in software. ZigBee requires one-eighth as much software code as Bluetooth and one-thirtieth that of WiFi (see chart, below). "We've been careful not to get caught up in scope creep," says Heile.
The early leader in ZigBee semiconductors is Ember, a fabless startup whose pre-standard chips are being used in most system makers' initial products. Others that have announced plans to or are already making ZigBee chips include Atmel, Chipcon, CrossBow, Freescale, Microchip, Oki and ZMD.
Venkat Bahl, Ember's vice-president of marketing, says his company is producing about 80,000 chips monthly, and is one of the few suppliers of both ZigBee hardware and software.
Numerous companies, including Airbee Wireless, Figure 8 Wireless and Helicomm are developing ZigBee software. On the systems side, vendors range from big players like Eaton, Honeywell, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Philips and Samsung to smaller specialists like Control 4 and Smarthome. Eaton, for instance, offers a home monitoring system that lets users remotely check whether doors and windows are open or lights and appliances turned off.
Heile expects Asian manufacturers to pursue the ZigBee market aggressively. He notes that 80 Chinese manufacturers showed up at a recent ZigBee event in Shenzhen, China. But at this point, it's too soon to predict who the leading ZigBee players will be. Says Heile: "It's going to be a real horse race."
Since you guys built it they will come . And fairly soon I might add!!!
I beleive you are right on...I bought more today. Looking forward to some momentum in the near future..
ACQUISITIONS
The Company’s acquisition of Connexus Technologies (Pte.) Ltd. has been accounted for using the purchase method of accounting. The Company acquired 100% of the common stock of Connexus for 1,662,562 shares of common stock valued at $100,000, and assumed a promissory note which at the time of acquisition (as of October 1, 2002) was valued at $50,000, subsequently with accrued interest is valued at $100,000 as of March 31, 2005. Connexus had a net book value of $22,026 (US dollar equivalent) resulting in $127,974 in goodwill, which management determined to be impaired based on the fact that the purchase price was determined based on what Connexus had been developing. The primary reason the Company acquired Connexus was the working model and software code that it had been developing fits nicely into the current business model and software code of the Company. The Company did not pay any cash for Connexus and there are no contingent payments, options, or commitments specified in the purchase agreement.
The book value of $22,026 of Connexus at the time of acquisition consisted of:
Current assets
$ 42,638
Fixed assets
18,190
Accounts payable and other accrued expenses
(38,802 )
Total
$ 22,026
NOTE 9- RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
As discussed in Note 6, the Company has demand promissory notes with some of its officers for services rendered to the Company. Interest is accrued at 6.0% and 9.75% annually on these notes. As of March 31, 2005, the Company has $1,010,621 outstanding under these notes, including $74,888 in accrued interest.
NOTE 10- PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES
Deferred income taxes will be determined using the liability method for the temporary differences between the financial reporting basis and income tax basis of the Company’s assets and liabilities. Deferred income taxes will be measured based on the tax rates expected to be in effect when the temporary differences are included in the Company’s consolidated tax return. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized based on anticipated future tax consequences attributable to differences between financial statement carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases.
At March 31, 2005, deferred tax assets consist of the following:
Net operating loss carryforwards
$ 930,170
Less: valuation allowance
(930,170
At March 31, 2005, the Company had deficits accumulated during the development stage in the approximate amount of $3,100,567, available to offset future taxable income through 2023. The Company established valuation allowances equal to the full amount of the deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty of the utilization of the operating losses in future periods.
Pez candy dispensers I think..
So..Who will be the next penny stock to penetrate this market with great potential. The investigation begins now..hehehe Ya neva know!
Glad to see Ihub getting some action here on Abew. I like this portal better than RB generally speaking...
Time will be very kind to MSEP. Mid to late summer I expect large blossoms...
I am a new memebr now...
I will even the predict the opening will up from the starting bell...ding ding ding
Yep...Appears a run is imminent...hehe
One thing I read that was contrary to how I have done in the past was to BUY on rumor and SELL on news. Meaning when buying on news you end up chasing some and lose the benefit of getting in low. That applies to this stock really well based on history...
Yes I think we will see a nice steady climb throughout the rest of the week. With the filing coming up I expect some good news. I think we have seen the lows and now all uphill for awhile.
Gettin ready for a bit of a run it appears...
This baby is due for a good bump...
I think once news is released with aquisitions the stock will run very easily. A little volume will do wonders...
ABEW is poised to break the 2.00 real soon. The big shareholders meeting is next week in Gaithersburg Maryland. If you are not familiar with this stock check out the Forum. Bunch of good guys and really getting excited now....
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=OTCF:ABEW
Alrighty.....New shirts and mugs on order. I will be able to wear my new shirt and drink coffee out of my new mug while I watch EZTO or EZTOE move on up ....hehe