July 16 2001
CDNX: IT
Vancouver, B.C.
BURNABY, B.C. – Icron Technologies Corporation (CDNX: IT) (“Icron”), a leading provider of extended range high-performance connectivity technologies for the computer marketplace, announced that the company has applied for a patent with the Canadian Patent Office. This is the second patent Icron has applied for in the last two years for its extended range Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology, ExtremeUSBþ. An earlier worldwide patent application is pending approval through the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Icron’s patent application, titled “Method and Apparatus for extending the range of the USB protocol” covers a practical and effective means of extending the range of USB connections beyond the 5-meter limitation of the conventional USB 2.0 protocol. The author of the patent is John McLeod, Icron’s Vice-President of Engineering. With this system USB 2.0 devices can be deployed across a business enterprise or industrial installation.
“We are delighted that once again Icron is leading its field by enabling large new markets for extended range USB connections,” said Suresh Singh, President and CEO of Icron. “As our next big step forward in technology, Icron’s USB 2.0 patent application signals our drive to lead the USB connectivity market.”
John McLeod added, “Our new technology in support of USB 2.0 will leverage the huge advantages of this latest standard. USB 2.0 is 40 times faster than the USB 1.1 version and Icron’s 2.0 implementation will fully support that major market advantage.” USB is the standard method by which over 500 million PC’s and more than 750 million peripheral devices are locally connected to one another and pass information between computer and device. The USB 2.0 standard solidifies USB as the connection bus of the future for data intensive, high speed applications such as mass storage, video, Internet access appliances, scanners, local area networks, data acquisition, IP telephony and multimedia computing.
Icron Technologies Corporation. of Burnaby, B.C. has invented ExtremeUSB™ technology, a practical means of extending the range of USB 1.1 connections from 5 meters to over 100 meters. Icron has applied for patents covering its inventions and is integrating its technology into a series of products for computing applications. Icron is committed to working with its partners to increase the total market for USB products by enabling a broad set of new applications that utilize ExtremeUSB. Icron is a publicly traded company and trades under the symbol IT on the Canadian Venture Exchange Inc.
Icron Contacts:
Investor Relations: Ashiff Jivraj ashiff.jivraj@icron.com (604) 638-3923
Note: The company relies on litigation protection for “forward-looking” statements. The Canadian 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 production 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.