BOSTON and CAMBRIDGE, England, June 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- New EM300 Series first ZigBee system-on-chips (SoCs) based on the
32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 processor

Ember, a leader in wireless networking technology, today unveiled the
EM300 Series, its next-generation ZigBee chip family that packs the
industry's highest wireless networking performance and application code space
into the lowest power-consuming chip set.

Thanks to its unmatched performance, high code density and power
efficiency, the EM300 family will be a boon to developers seeking to build
sophisticated products for smart energy and home area networks (HANs) as well
as home and building automation. It offers ZigBee developers a combination of
a popular ARM(R) microprocessor, a powerful IEEE 802.15.4 radio and larger
memory for increasingly demanding sensor network applications.

The new EM300 Series products include:

EM351 - integrates an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4
    RF transceiver, 128 KB Flash, 12 KB RAM and EmberZNet PRO network
    protocol stack supporting the ZigBee PRO Feature Set

    EM357 - specifically optimized for more sophisticated applications
    that require additional memory, it has 192 KB Flash while
    incorporating all the other characteristics and features of the
    EM351

The performance of the EM300 Series is highlighted by excellent range --
twice that of the competition -- virtually eliminating the need for an
external power amplifier (PA) in Europe and Asia, significantly better
message latency and data throughput, and at least 25 percent longer battery
life than any other solution currently available in the market.

"Smart metering is revolutionizing energy management and grid
reliability," said Letha McLaren, Global Product Manager at Landis+Gyr. "We
are committed to delivering leading-edge smart grid solutions, and the
product components we receive from Ember, such as the EM300 Series SoC, play
an important role in providing the features and performance required by our
customers."

One of the key features enabling its unmatched performance and
functionality is the ARM Cortex-M3 processor which delivers exceptional code
density, computational performance and system response to interrupts. In
addition to its excellent performance characteristics, the ARM Cortex-M3 core
boasts an extensive support infrastructure.

"Elster is pleased to be integrating the EM357 into our market-leading
EnergyAxis smart metering system," said Victor Sitton, Vice President of
Product Marketing at Elster. "The EM300 Series allows us to provide our
customers with a cost effective ZigBee-enabled smart metering solution for
demand response, load control, pricing and customer communications. In
addition, the ultra low power consumption profile of the EM357 is also
advantageous for Elster and its customers. While the energy saved on an
individual meter basis may be small, when scaled across hundreds of thousands
of devices, it can mean significant energy savings for our utility customers.
This not only saves utilities money, it has a positive impact on the
environment as well."

Complete ZigBee Solutions

The EM300 Series SoCs are tightly integrated with EmberZNet PRO, the
industry's most widely deployed ZigBee-compliant stack. EmberZNet PRO fully
supports the ZigBee PRO Feature Set including the ZigBee Smart Energy and
Home Automation profiles.

Using Ember's InSight(TM) Development Environment combined with the vast
ecosystem of tools available for the ARM processor, developers can rapidly
build and debug ZigBee applications that perform better and more securely in
the most challenging wireless environments.

"With the quickly expanding market for ZigBee in general and smart energy
in particular, our customers are demanding even higher levels of performance
and software capabilities that differentiate their ZigBee solutions. They
want more powerful processors and radios, stronger security and more memory
space to accommodate their code, all without consuming additional power. The
EM300 Series delivers on all counts," said Bob LeFort, Ember CEO.

EM300 Series Details

The EM300 Series delivers outstanding wireless RF performance with a
total Link Budget up to 109 dB. Its high transmit power virtually eliminates
the need for an external PA in most applications, though it can easily
accommodate one if designed.

The EM300 Series also offers the lowest sleep current -- as low as 400 nA
-- of any ZigBee system on the market. Developers can take advantage of
EmberZNet PRO's networking library to incorporate short wake cycles, and
on-board clocks provide optimized wake-sleep cycles to conserve power.

Pricing and Availability

Priced under US$3 in high volumes, the EM300 Series SoCs will be
generally available in late Q3 2009.

About Ember

Ember Corporation (http://www.ember.com) develops ZigBee wireless
networking technology that enables companies involved in energy technologies
-- enertech -- to help make buildings and homes smarter, consume less energy,
operate more efficiently, and keep people comfortable and safe. Ember's
low-power wireless technology can be embedded into a wide variety of devices
to be part of a self-organizing mesh network. Ember is headquartered in
Boston and has its radio development center in Cambridge, England, and
distributors worldwide. The company is a promoter and Board member of the
ZigBee Alliance and its platform is the "Golden Suite" for 802.15.4/ZigBee
interoperability testing.

Ember, Ember Enabled, EmberZNet, InSight and the Ember logo are
trademarks of Ember Corporation. ZigBee is a trademark of the ZigBee
Alliance. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their
respective companies.