Connect One: iChip Internet Controller to support switchable 802.11b WLAN and GPRS functionality.

Connect One has presented its plan to introduce new functionality for its iChip Plus Internet Controller chip that will support the PRISM 2 chip set from Intersil Corp. (Nasdaq:ISIL) for switchable 802.11b wireless LAN connectivity, in addition to iChip's current support for the rapidly growing worldwide General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) cellular network.

This combined functionality is ideal for telematics, transportation and data collection applications that require wireless local area networking when operating within short distances and wireless wide area networking connectivity when on the road.

"Wireless LAN support offers great benefits to our customers who are large trucking companies," says Luis Baptista, president of Aerotrade Lda., an engineering firm in Lisbon, Portugal that develops mobile video surveillance applications. "Our customers today use iChip and a Nokia 30 GPRS terminal to send live, high-resolution 30 kilobyte images from their trucks to the control room. With iChip's new functionality, their trucks will be able to log-on via WLAN in the depot, and switch to GPRS connectivity when they go on the road. This will save our customers costly airtime."

"Users of portable and mobile products can have the best of both worlds with switchable Wi-Fi and GPRS connectivity," said Alan Singer, Connect One vice president of sales and marketing. "It is perfect for devices such as fleet management terminals, handheld data collection terminals for couriers, video cameras, and the next generation of portable consumer electronic products."

iChip is an updateable TCP/IP coprocessor that mediates the connection between a host processor and the Internet. It offloads Internet connectivity tasks from the host processor and connects to the Internet via dial-up modems, wireless phones or modems (AMPS, CDMA, CDPD, GPRS, GSM, IDEN, and TDMA protocols), or 10/100BaseT Ethernet LANs and 802.11b wireless LANs. iChip works with GPRS modems from Siemens, Wavecom, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. Internet protocols and configuration parameters are stored in iChip's onboard flash memory, are independent of the host application, and can be remotely updated over the Internet. iChip interfaces to a device's host processor via a serial connection and Connect One's high-level AT+i Application Programming Interface, which enables manufacturers with limited Internet programming capability to quickly and easily Internet-enable their devices by writing just a few commands in their application.

Connect One will release a reference design in Q1, 2003 in which iChip Plus and any GPRS modem can work alongside Intersil's PRISM 2 802.11b chip. iChip Plus is available in North America from Arrow Electronics (NYSE:ARW), www.arrow.com. Please visit Connect One's Web site at www.connectone.com for a complete list of distributors worldwide. Suggested pricing for iChip Plus is $23 for over 10,000 units.