Icron Systems’ first products receive USB Compliance.

May 17th, 2000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – May 17, 2000 – Icron Systems, Inc. (CDNX: ICM), a world class USB technology and solutions provider, announced today that its Ranger family of products have been approved as “USB compliant” by the Universal Serial Bus Implementers Forum (USB-IF). Icron’s Ranger products are the only fully compliant USB products in the marketplace that can extend USB connections beyond the current limitation of 5 meters to 100 meters.

The USB Implementers Forum, Inc. is a non-profit corporation founded by the group of companies that developed the USB specification. It is the role of the USB-IF to support the development of high quality USB devices and ensure the quality of products that pass compliance testing.
In addition to receiving USB-IF compliance, Icron’s Ranger products have also received FCC, Industry Canada and CE certification.

The Ranger family of products incorporates Icron’s proprietary ExtremeUSB technology and is the first of a broad family of extended range USB products that will be introduced by Icron, ExtremeUSB Team alliance partners and many other manufacturers of products and systems that incorporate the USB protocol.
“USB-IF approval of the Ranger product line represents industry confirmation that Icron’s ExtremeUSB distance enhancing technology is transparent to USB devices” stated David S. Smith – Icron’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Manufacturers, VAR’s and Systems Integrators seeking to address distance applications can now include ExtremeUSB knowing that all of the plug and play and ease of use benefits of USB will be fully retained.”

Currently, timing limitations within the USB protocol limit the overall domain to 30 meters and transmission limitations restrict individual cable segments to five meters (16 feet). With a five meter range limitation between devices and an overall 30 meter limitation, USB confines PC peripherals to the user’s immediate surroundings.
Simply extending USB cables does not maintain USB integrity. Icron has removed the distance limitation of USB by developing products, such as the Ranger family of extended range USB hubs that extend the allowable distance between USB peripherals and the host PC.
Stated Mats Gerschman – Icron’s President and CEO, “USB-IF compliant ExtremeUSB technology removes distance as a limiting factor to the broad adoption of USB. This significant achievement enables USB to play a leading role in applications as varied as point of sale, audio-visual, security, instrumentation and industrial controls . Icron has now established itself as the global industry leader in USB compliant distance technology and solutions.”

About Icron Systems Inc.

Icron Systems is a world class USB technology and solutions provider. The inventors of ExtremeUSB technology, Icron has developed the only USB compliant means of extending the range of USB connections from 5 meters (16 feet) to over 100 meters (330 feet). With patents pending, the Company is integrating this technology into a series of products that provide extended USB solutions. Icron has established the ExtremeUSB Team of companies to increase the total market for USB products by enabling a broad set of new applications based on ExtremeUSB. Icron is a publicly traded company and trades under the symbol ICM on the Canadian Venture Exchange. The company is based in Vancouver, Canada.

More information can be found on the company’s web site at www.icron.com
Or at the USB-IF website at www.usb.org

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.