Ember opens new facility in the UK

The company also announced some major milestone achievements for the first half of 2005 to further strengthen Ember's position in the ZigBee wireless networking market. ZigBee is an embedded wireless network standard that solves the unique needs of remote monitoring and control, and sensor network applications. Ember opened a new research and business facility in Cambridge, England, to accommodate expansion of the company's radio IC development team, as well as a business development team serving Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). On the new customer front, Ember has announced new business with a U.S. government defense agency, valued at more than $1 million. Details of the defense application will be announced in a subsequent news release. In addition, Raymarine, the U.K.-based developer of marine electronics, is now shipping its Ember-enabled wireless autopilot system unveiled in February. Ember also announced that two major Asian distributors - Memec (Asia-Pacific) Ltd. in China and MJL Technologies Ltd. in South Korea - will distribute and market Ember's ZigBee wireless semiconductor systems to OEM customers in that region. "One measure of an industry standard's market success is its adoption across all regions of the world. Ember's growing base of international customers, partners and offices demonstrates that ZigBee is achieving that goal," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance.