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.
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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 |