
Icron announces Wireless USB product
roadmap
BURNABY, B.C., February 9, 2005 - Icron Technologies Corporation
(TSX Venture: IT), the developers of ExtremeUSB® today
announced its product roadmap for its Wireless USB program.
It addresses the growing market demand for connecting, without
wires, the millions of USB devices currently on the market.
Icron and its partners have recognized that the computing
marketplace does not have a USB 1.1 or 2.0 compliant cable
replacement solution, and that most USB wireless products
are merely adapters for other proprietary interfaces. Icron’s
solution will not only support all the legacy USB devices
in the market today, but will also be available in a format
that can be embedded into new products, such as USB based
Flash Drives, Digital Cameras, CD/DVD Drives and MP3 Players,
to name a few.
Based on the Wireless USB program that was announced in
Q3/04, and the subsequent further financial support of the
NRC-IRAP program, Icron has made significant progress in the
development of a compliant USB 2.0 Wireless solution.
The program focuses on offering the market a USB cable replacement
solution that is independent of the RF interface and modulation
scheme. The solution natively supports USB 1.1 (1.5Mbps, 12Mbps)
and USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and are compatible with the most commonly
available transceiver architectures.
The primary benefit of Icron’s Wireless USB solution
is its existing USB support, requiring no additional drivers,
host controller changes, or users configurations making it
a standard USB “plug and play” solution. Each
version is focused at various price/performance points that
customers have identified as important. The versions are as
follows:
- The Low Speed version is focused on supporting low speed
USB devices that requires approx 1.5 Mbps throughput up
to a range of 30m. This solution is ideal for high performance
Keyboards, Hubs or other I/O devices where cost is critical.
- The Full Speed version provides customers with increased
range and data rates based on industry standard 802.11radios.
This will be ideal for devices that require USB 1.1 full
speed (12 Mbps) or USB 2.0 compatibility, but may not operate
at true USB high speeds of 480 Mbps. It will also provide
distance support of 50 meters or more.
- The High Speed version is based on the new high speed
UWB radio chipsets that are currently being released to
the market. As these chipsets become commercially available
and improve in their performance characteristics, they will
provide the ultimate platform for short-range high speed
USB 2.0 support.
“Icron believes that our unique approach to the market
allows for the most customer flexibility while still supporting
the USB-IF mandate of ease of use and compatibility”,
commented Robert Eisses, VP Sales and Marketing. “Currently,
all the other initiatives to develop Wireless USB solutions
in the market today, are not true USB and require significant
changes to the ecosystem to implement them.”
Icron has been working with partners and potential customers
of Wireless USB to identify the optimal RF platform to build
on, based on their unique requirements.
“The ExtremeUSB protocol is ideally suited to the wireless
domain because it was originally designed to address the issues
of delay, latency and power management in long range cable
based environments,” commented John McLeod, VP Engineering
at Icron. “Adding the wireless interface was a natural
and planned roadmap for ExtremeUSB”
Icron is a member of the UWB Forum, USB-IF, MultiBand OFDM
Alliance (MBOA) and the Wireless USB Promoters Group which
all identify Wireless USB as an important application for
the success of UWB.
About Icron Technologies Corp www.icron.com
Icron Technologies Corporation is a leading provider of
high-performance digital connectivity technologies for the
computer marketplace. Icron's patented ExtremeUSB® technology
is compliant with USB Implementers Forum requirements and
touches several large worldwide markets from industrial automation
to medical devices, aerospace, KVM and computer networking.
The company provides branded and private-label packaged products,
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) modules, developer kits,
and engineering and development services.
Icron is a publicly traded corporation and trades under
the symbol "IT" on the TSX Venture Exchange. For
information on the company and its products, please visit
www.icron.com and for detailed financial information visit
www.sedar.com. The Toronto Venture Exchange has not reviewed
and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy
of this release.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Except for statements of historical
fact, all statements in this news release -- including, without
limitation, statements regarding financial estimates and future
plans and objectives of Icron -- are forward-looking statements
that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be
no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate;
actual results and future events could differ materially from
those anticipated in such statements.
2005 Icron Technologies Corporation. ExtremeUSB®, USB
Ranger™ are trademarks of Icron Technologies Corporation.
Distributed by Filing Services Canada and retransmitted
by Market Wire
Contacts
For further information, please contact the following:
Icron Technologies Corporation |
|
Suresh Singh, President & CEO
suresh.singh@icron.com
|
Phone: 604-638-3929
Fax: 604-638-3930 |
The Howard Group |
|
David Gordon, Investor Relations for
Icron
david@howardgroupinc.com |
Phone: 403-221-0915
Fax: 403-237-8387 |
|