Airbee and Link Plus Sign Strategic Partnership to Bring Long-Range Wireless Technology to New Markets.ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Airbee Wireless (OTC OTC See: Over-the-counter. OTC See over-the-counter market (OTC). :ABEW) and Link Plus Corporation (OTCBB OTCBB See OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB). :LKPL), two Washington, DC-area companies, today announced a strategic partnership for co-developing a series of new products around the emerging ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard. Under terms of the strategic alliance, the companies are integrating a bundle of secure, high-performance RF wireless technologies to be implemented as a sophisticated series of low-cost system bundles and ultimately systems on a chip (SOC (System On a Chip) The electronics for a complete, working product contained on a single chip. While a microcontroller includes all the hardware components required to process instructions, an SoC includes the computer and all required ancillary electronics. ) offerings. Resulting products will apply Link Plus AWICS AWICS Aircraft Wireless Intercommunications System AWICS Agency-Wide Information Classification Scheme (R) radios and microprocessor-based hardware and Airbee UltraLite(TM) embedded software Instructions that permanently reside in a ROM or flash memory chip. Embedded software may be immediately available to the CPU or, for faster execution, may be transferred to RAM first and then executed. protocols. "Our patented AWICS wireless hardware platform provides a long range, real-time radio capability that can be applied to several large and important emerging markets, among them automatic meter reading Automatic meter reading, or AMR, is the technology of automatically collecting data from water meter or energy metering devices (water, gas, electric) and transferring that data to a central database for billing and/or analyzing. , home automation, point-of-sale, and automotive security," said Dr. Jonathan P. Gluckman, executive vice president and COO (Cell Of Origin) See mobile positioning. of Link Plus. "When combined with Airbee's proprietary software stack (1) A stack that is implemented in memory rather than in hardware registers. See stack. (2) A generic reference to a set of system programs or a set of application programs that form a complete system. See stack. , we expect to be able to reduce system size and power to produce highly efficient modules for these and other industries." Gene Sharer, Airbee Wireless COO, added: "Porting Airbee software to Link Plus' proven microprocessor environments accelerates time to market for many applications, while using approved ZigBee specifications ZigBee is the specification of a low-cost, low-power wireless communications solution, meant to be integrated as the main building block of ubiquitous networks. It is maintained by the ZigBee Alliance, which develops the specification and certifies its proper implementation. leverages Airbee's investment in protocols emerging from the ZigBee Alliance. One of our major contributions to the strategic partnership is our long-term expertise in developing a complete package of application program interfaces (APIs). Application notes to support these APIs are critical tools when porting our technology software bundles from one platform to another." The two executives also anticipate their co-licensing agreement to reduce time to market significantly for their respective product development programs. They said that the relationship is expected to develop a revenue stream of several million dollars per year. Gluckman noted that Link Plus is building a substantial presence in the automobile security market. Airbee's technology has immediate application to a remote, keyless entry keyless entry: see lock and key. product Link Plus is preparing for volume production late in the third quarter of 2004. He estimated 10,000 units would be produced initially under a separate contract with a third party, growing to more than 300,000 units a year. Link Plus has many similar opportunities in the automatic meter reading environment as well, another market where RF unit volumes are expected to be very large. The ZigBee wireless protocol is working its way through engineering studies by the ZigBee Alliance, 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. The ZigBee Alliance is a rapidly growing, non-profit industry consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers, technology providers, OEMs and end-users worldwide. Additional information on the ZigBee standard can be found at www.ZigBee.org. Sharer said the next engineering specification from the ZigBee Alliance is expected to be published soon. Airbee is a participating member in the Alliance and has a substantial base of expertise in the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. 802.15.4/ZigBee standards. About Airbee Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. According to the 2006 census update, the city had a total population of 59,114, making it the second largest city in Maryland. , and with offices in Singapore and Chennai, India, Airbee is an innovator of patent-pending, intelligent connectivity software for wireless data, voice and video communications. Its product portfolio enables consumer and business devices to connect to each other wirelessly over short distances. A member of the ZigBee Alliance, Airbee's competitive edge is attributed to utilizing a software approach to provide lower cost, greater flexibility and shorter time to market for customers. To learn more about getting unwired Unwired is an Australian public company dedicated to building a nationwide, fixed wireless telecommunications network offering carrier grade Internet services. They currently provide coverage in Sydney and Melbourne. with Airbee, please visit www.airbeewireless.com or phone (301) 517-1860. About Link Plus Link Plus Corporation offers a growing selection of advanced new wireless communication systems built around proprietary technologies and products with broad application to consumer, industrial, military and national security markets. The company has more than 11 US and corresponding foreign patents in the wireless area. Link Plus shares began publicly trading in October 2003, under the OTCBB symbol LKPL. In March, 2004, Link Plus completed the acquisition of JS Technologies Corp. to extend its product offerings and attain a leading position in narrow-band wireless marketplace. Link Plus' headquarters are located in Columbia, MD, and a West Coast office in Irvine, CA. Further information is available at www.linkplus.com or (410) 953-7177. This news release includes "forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. " within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This information is based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of each company. Although both companies believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, neither can give any assurance that such expectations or any of these forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, successful performance of internal plans, product development acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and pricing and general economic risks and uncertainties. |
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