ThingMagic Mercury5 Embedded RFID Upgrade Extends Power, Optimizes Performance and Increases Read Rates PDF Print E-mail
September 03, 2008

Cambridge, MA, September 3, 2008 – ThingMagic, Inc. (www.thingmagic.com), a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, today released firmware for its family of Mercury5 embedded RFID readers and antennas. Due to the Mercury5's software defined radio design, ThingMagic Mercury5e and M5e-Compact readers are easily, and remotely, upgradeable to extend their power, further optimize performance and increase RFID tag read rates.

The Mercury5 embedded reader upgrade supports improvements to the Generation 2 "Q" optimization algorithm and reduced channel hop time. By lowering hop time and raising the link data rata rate, the firmware increases the Mercury5 module read rate performance. Further, select groups of tags can be detected on all connected antennas, and identified and acted upon in a single read session, reducing overall time spent performing complex operations.

"We're constantly monitoring customer requests to meet their evolving demands as they roll out more and more RFID applications," said Yael Maguire, ThingMagic co-founder and CTO. "This upgrade enables our customers worldwide to quickly add new features to existing ThingMagic RFID embedded readers, and accelerate the return on their RFID investments."

The firmware upgrade also includes support for custom commands through NXP G2XM and G2XL tags; set and reset "ReadProtect", for on-demand prevention of all communication with tags; Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) that enables and activates alarms for product theft prevention; and calibration functionality to aid labs testing.

Other Mercury5 embedded firmware enhancements include:

  • Support for CCC RFID standard used in China
  • Rapid, continuous search for RFID tags on all antennas
  • Returns condition under which each RFID tag was read, including relative receive level, receive antenna and channel frequency, and number of duplicate reads, and time of first read
  • Isolate tags based on EPC, partial EPC or any value in memory (or the opposite – select tags without the specified criteria)
  • Ability to perform an action (write, read, lock, kill) on a selected group of tags, with a single command

Through its RFID professional services, ThingMagic facilitates the integration of RFID into a wide range of industrial and consumer products for some of the world's largest retailers, consumer companies, automotive firms, manufacturers, and industrial automation firms.
 

Customer inquiries should be directed to ThingMagic Sales at, 1-866-833-4069; +1 617-499-4090 for callers from outside the US & Canada).

About Trimble
Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. For more information, visit Trimble's Web site at: http://www.trimble.com/.

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Media Contact:

Lucie Mann
Lois Paul & Partners for ThingMagic
617-986-5863
lucie_mann@lpp.com


RFID Demand Increasing

"Month to month, we're seeing demand for RFID label applications that extend far beyond traditional retail and supply chain use. In addition to CPG suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, our RFID customers include businesses in the food industry, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and other markets, using RFID for inventory control, asset tracking, document tracking, and even patient tracking. When they see a demonstration of a 10-second RFID scan of a rack of products versus a 10-minute manual bar code scan of the same rack, they're eager to adopt RFID and customize an application for their specific use."

-- Stephen Hull, Sato America