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Tendril, Atmel ease deployment of wireless sensor and control networks

ControlGlobal.com
01/12/2007

Tendril, provider of network operations platform software for customizing and deploying wireless sensor and control networks (WSCN), is cooperating with Atmel Corporation to accelerate and simplify customer deployments of WSCN applications. Atmel and Tendril will integrate and bundle Atmel’s AVR® Z-Link 802.15.4/ZigBee hardware solution and Tendril’s network operations platform software for WSCN – enabling customers to integrate and deploy the Atmel wireless networking platform with IP networks, PC/PDA-based applications and other aspects of enterprise computing systems.

Tendril’s distributed platform allows organizations to fully leverage the power of WSCN implementations that integrate different types of low-power sensors/actuators with traditionally networked computing systems. The Tendril network operations platform provides an integrated server-side "broker" and device-side "agent," along with associated network bridging software, for monitoring, managing and integrating WSCNs. This approach allows OEMs to integrate wireless networking capabilities into their products in less than a week and provides system integrators with the ability to quickly add well-monitored WSCNs to deployments in the field.

Atmel’s solution includes its ultra low-power, high-sensitivity 2.4 GHz AT86RF230 802.15.4 radio, a choice of ultra-low-power AVR microcontrollers with flash densities of 64-, 128- or 256KB, and a small footprint, fully compliant media access controlsoftware optimized for the AVR architecture.

Tendril and Atmel will also collaborate on a variety of co-marketing activities, support each other’s field sales operations, and jointly provide support for the bundled solution.

"This partnership is a natural extension of our long-standing collaboration. This integrated solution provides customers with a truly complete solution for deploying WSCN applications," said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril. "Coming on the heels of our support for other leading low-power wireless radio platforms, we are now shipping product that works with a large percentage of the world’s production-volume 802.15.4-based platforms."