Zigbee RFID: Atmel Announces Industry's First ZigBee-Ready Chipset with ...

From PR Newswire (press release) ... Z-Link Solution Is the World's First, Architectured to Support ZigBee Applications SAN JOSE, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atmel(R) Corporation ...

The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. ZigBee’s powerful but simple protocol promises to simplify wireless product integration, speed time to market, and reduce costs and risks for manufacturers looking to embed wireless connectivity. Your company can gain the inside track on this rapidly emerging standard — plus you can also help shape the specification as it evolves to meet your application-specific and industry-specific needs. Manufacturers focused on the home-control and building-automation markets, including lighting, HVAC, AMR and appliance OEMs, are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to shape the future of wireless networking, and to redefine the competitive landscape of their industries. The ZigBee Alliance offers two levels of membership: Promoter and Participant.

ZigBee™-compliant RF Transceivers and Controllers: Atmel is committed to providing cost effective, easy-to-use, highly reliable, and secure system solutions for the wireless market. Supporting that goal, Atmel’s ZigBee-compliant product line will include a complete ZigBee and 802.15.4 solution of RF transceivers, tailored microcontrollers, and software and reference designs. Atmel's AT86RF210 Z-Link™ Transceiver, capable of transmitting and receiving modulated digital data over the 868/915 MHz bands with data rates up to 20 kbps and 40 kbps respectively, is currently in development. Another product in development, the AT86ZL3201 Z-Link Controller, is a ZigBee-compliant controller, based on Atmel’s high performance AVR® RISC microcontroller core. It includes SRAM and Flash memory and is optimized for 802.15.4 as well as ZigBee applications, and supports all bands (868/915 MHz and 2.4 GHz).

As an active member of the ZigBee Alliance, Atmel strongly supports this wireless communications solution that will be embedded in consumer electronics, home and building automation, industrial controls, PC peripherals, medical applications, and electronic toys and games. ZigBee is targeted for low data rate (20 - 250 kbps) applications that need low cost and in many cases are battery operated and therefore need low power consumption. It utilizes the IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN standard for the Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY). ZigBee adds the application and network protocols to 802.15.4 to ensure interoperability between vendors.