ZigBee Alliance grows to more than 90 members; includes Freescale

The ZigBee Alliance reports that 19 new firms have joined the organization, bringing its total membership to more than 90 companies.

By Control Engineering Staff September 2, 2004

The ZigBee Alliance reports that 19 new firms have joined the organization, bringing its total membership to more than 90 companies. The alliance is working to enable wirelessly networked monitoring and control products based on an open, global standard.

This influx of new members is led by Freescale Semiconductor Inc., which joined at the elite “promoter” level. Freescale’s promoter status enables it to continue its ongoing contribution to developing a successful standard, and participate in the alliance’s decisions for its activities as a separate company, following its recent spin-off from Motorola Inc. Freescale will hold a seat on ZigBee’s board of directors along with Ember, Honeywell, Invensys, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Philips, and Samsung.

The 18 other new members are:

  • Analog Devices;

  • Casient Ltd.;

  • Cirronet Inc.;

  • Crossbow Technology Inc.;

  • Elan Microelectronics Corp.;

  • LeGrand;

  • LIPS Nederland BV;

  • Luxoft;

  • One RF Technology;

  • RadioPluse Inc.;

  • RF Technologies Inc.;

  • San Juan Software Inc.;

  • Silicon Laboratories;

  • Software Technologies Group Inc.;

  • Tattile Srl;

  • TSC Systems;

  • Vantage Controls Inc.; and

  • Westmoreland Engineering, Inc.

ZigBee’s newest members bring a range of expertise to the alliance’s collective efforts, including building controls, smart radio solutions, software solutions, application development and integration services, and industrial wireless communications. These new members will work with other companies, and contribute to the initial specification, preview leading-edge technology, and network with other member companies. The membership’s momentum underscores its goal to make ZigBee the leading wireless connectivity technology for monitoring, sensing and control applications in residential and commercial environments.

“We’ve grown our membership to include over 90 leading companies from around the globe. They bring their technical expertise to ZigBee and an unprecedented willingness to collaborate,” says Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “We’re very excited about the growth which will broaden opportunities for product innovation, provide an early mechanism for interoperability testing of new technology based on ZigBee, and influence the future of wireless communication.”

The alliance adds that ZigBee is the only standards-based technology designed to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring, home control, and building automation network applications.

Companies that want to have input on developing the ZigBee specification and create ZigBee products can join by visiting the ZigBee Web site .

—Jim Montague, news editor, Control Engineering, jmontague@reedbusiness.com