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JULY 13th, 2005
Zensys, a fabless semiconductor company and inventor of the Z-Wave
wireless mesh networking technology, has closed its third round of financing. The $16 million round was led by Bessemer Venture
Partners. Other investors included Palamon Capital Partners, and Vaekstfonden.
Zensys’ Z-Wave technology has become widely accepted for wireless
control applications. The technology, which allows for the control of home security systems, lighting and other home control
functions from anywhere on the planet, has already been designed into over 85 wireless home control and automation products
and has received the support of over 125 companies. These companies include Danfoss, Wayne Dalton, Intermatic, Leviton and
UEI Inc.
Bob Goodman, Managing Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners indicated
that one reason for his company’s investment was that Zensys produced more cost-effective chips, "We are investing in
Zensys based on its proven and widely accepted wireless home control technology, as well as its ability to secure support
throughout the industry and continually produce more efficient and more cost-effective Z-Wave chips. Zensys is clearly a company
poised for significant continued growth."
Zensys’ ZW0201 chip besides an 8051 microcontroller, also
integrates an RF transceiver, flash and SRAM memory and a variety of peripheral circuits.
JUNE 24th, 2005
Chipcon Passes 1 Million ZigBee Shipments, 67% Growth
Chipcon AS, a fabless RF chipset companies, has shipped over 1 million ZigBee-ready,
IEEE 802.15.4 RF chips. With the shipment milestone, the company also reported that over 1,000 companies have ordered its
CC2420 evaluation kits. Geir Fore, President and CEO of Chipcon AS commented on the possibility of increased levels of shipments,
"The fact that we have already reached 1 million units is a significant milestone not only for Chipcon, but for the entire
ZigBee 802.15.4 market. Our success has been based on our ability to reach the market early with a working and compliant platform,
and our ability to anticipate our end customers' systems needs. We expect even further market traction in the second half
of 2005, and it is now evident that the ZigBee standard is the clear winner in the wireless controls market. " The company also noted in its 2004 Annual Report that it had 67 percent compound annual growth rate over the last four
years.
Chipcon, which has focused its attention on the building automation,
automated meter reading, industrial monitoring and healthcare markets, also recently announced in cooperation with Amron Technologies,
Inc. and Figure 8 Wireless, the Amron M5 advanced metering platform. That platform is based on Chipcon's CC2420 802.15.4 RF
semiconductor and Figure 8 Wireless Z-Stack ZigBee-compliant wireless device networking stack. The platform permits wide area
meter coverage - over 2000 meters.
Mark Leach, CTO at Amron, discussed the role of utility communications
options in the platform selection process , "In order to maximize a utility's communications options within its advanced metering
infrastructure, flexibility has always been a top priority for our development team. That's why we decided to accelerate our
ZigBee plans and chose the 2.4GHz frequency band which provides for the largest number of selectable channels and provides
worldwide operability. Each M5 platform network based on the ZigBee-compliant network platform operates autonomously, supports
up to 2,048 client meters, and transfers data to our meter management software housed in a secure data center. This represents
a significant competitive advantage over less scalable solutions."
JUNE 13th, 2005
Ember Announces Tiny Zigbee-on-a-Chip - ZoC
Ember has announced the EM250, which it billed as the world's first ZigBee "system-on-a-chip."
Raymarine, one of Ember's customers, will port its wireless autopilot system to the new Ember platform. Kieran Breheny, Director
of Engineering Development at Raymarine gave reasons for the selection of the new platform, "Ember offered the speed and convenience
of a fully integrated ZigBee platform solution - radio chips, networking software and development environment - that enabled
us to meet an aggressive product development cycle." Raymarine uses Ember's products for the development of wireless boat
navigation products.
The tiny chip, packaged in a thin 7mm x 7mm package, is to be available
in the summer of this year, priced at $4.00 in high volumes.
JUNE 7th, 2005
Integration Associates Moves into Zigbee Market with CompXs Acquisition
Integration Associates, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company noted for its mixed signal and
analog expertise, has acquired CompXs Inc. CompXs developed low-power, mesh network solutions for Zigbee platforms used in
the consumer and industrial markets.
The technology from the acquisition gives Integration Associates
the missing piece to the Zigbee platform market puzzle, which is addressed through Integration's EZRadio family of radio frequency
chips. According to Jean-Luc Nauleau, Integration Associate's CEO, "The dramatic reduction in cost and complexity represented
by the combination of these technologies convinces me that the large market potential projected by the ZigBee Alliance is
fully within the range of possibility. With the acquisition of CompXs, and the forthcoming release of Integration's 802.15.4
transceiver which supports the 868 MHz and 915 MHz bands, Integration becomes the only player with the technology to offer
full spectrum coverage for ZigBee device customers (868 MHz, 915 MHz, and 2.4 GHz). This full spectrum support, along with
Integration's top-performing radio layer and CompXs system-level expertise, makes Integration the clear 'total platform provider'
as we move into the market adoption phase of ZigBee networked devices."
APRIL 18th, 2005
Zensys Gold Sponsor of Digital Home Conference
Zensys, a company noted for its Z-Wave RF technology for the home control market,
is a gold sponsor of CONNECTIONS The Digital Home Conference and Showcase to be held May 11 to the 13th at the Hyatt Regency
in Burlingame
CA, near San Francisco. Raoul
Wijgergangs, Vice President Business Development for Zensys commented on the market, his company and the show, "At CONNECTIONS
last year, the Z-Wave wireless home control technology was rapidly gaining momentum as the de facto standard for home control.
This year, our position is stronger than ever with over 125 companies supporting Z-Wave as their home control standard of
choice, more than 70 Z-Wave products available to consumers and a second-generation chip that is the least expensive, most
efficient, and smallest on the market."
Tricia Parks, President of Parks Associates, which produces the show, talked about
the home management market, "Home management has often been overlooked, not grabbing headlines like entertainment solutions
despite persistent consumer interest in controls and security. In truth, the digital home will not be complete without a management
foundation in place, and companies like Zensys have been very successful in building viable control solutions for this market,
thus ensuring realization of the digital vision. With Zensys at CONNECTIONS(TM), our attendees will get a truly complete view
of the digital home." Over 700 are expected to attend the conference, which will feature over 90 speakers.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
Ember Corporation,
a wireless fabless semiconductor company and Tendril Networks entered into an agreement to develop Zigbee networks based on
Ember’s semiconductor technology. Ember hopes its semiconductors will help network together the over eight billion microcontrollers
shipped in a myriad of electronic devices to eventually communicate with each other. Applications for such a broad network
of interconnected devices include energy conservation and machine maintenance applications. Request
More Information - Specify Company, Product, Etc.
JANUARY 24th, 2005
Zigbee integrated circuits are used for the development of wireless systems used for home automation and industrial network
applications. The design of these chips is guided by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
The Zigbee chip market is relatively new. Because of this, there are not many companies that presently offer Zigbee chips.
This is expected to change soon. The main reason is that there are a number of companies that have Zigbee chips in development.
The companies on the right (in green) offer for the most part, Zigbee chips. The companies in red offer chipware, vital
to the configuration of Zigbee controller and processor chips.
The chipware companies often work closely with the Zigbee chip companies in the development of Zigbee chips. In
return, the chipware companies may obtain rights to market the final Zigbee chips.
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If your company has a Zigbee chip or chipware and is not listed, please contact us at
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