Intel R1000 Transceiver Chip Enables Lower Cost, Higher Performance and Smaller RFID Reader Form Factor

Cambridge, MA, March 6, 2007– ThingMagic, Inc. (www.thingmagic.com), a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, today introduced the Mercury5e® embedded RFID reader, which utilizes the Intel RFID Transceiver R1000 chip. The new chip integrates a number of components into a single integrated RFID circuit, and enables digital signal processing and analog data processing on the same chip. In turn, this supported ThingMagic’s development of the lower cost, higher performance, smaller Mercury5e, for use in RFID desktop, label, mobile and wearable printers, and handheld and mobile devices.

“ThingMagic’s Mercury5e is an excellent example of the innovative applications enabled by the Intel R1000 Transceiver chip, and demonstrates the multiple benefits of this chip in RFID,” said Michael J. Reed, Intel RFID Operation General Manager. “By working closely with vendors like ThingMagic, Intel is dramatically improving portable computing devices that must process millions of instructions per second, within the power and form-factor limitations of such mobile hardware.” Set to debut publicly at the 5^th Annual RFID World conference later this month in Texas, Mercury5e:

• Combines multi-region capability into a single module, enabling immediate, locally compliant deployment of any Mercury5e in Europe, North America, or South Korea;
• Utilizes an embedded version of the latest “Yagi” MercuryOS, for more 100 percent tag reads, many more simultaneous reads, and the ability to identify and filter interference from other RFID readers, fluorescent lighting, and wireless networks and telephones;
• Is optimized for Generation 2 RFID tags, for state of the art performance;
• Supports Generation 2 Dense Reader Mode, and advanced filtering, to reject multiple interference sources; and
• Consumes very little power, for maximum battery life and a broader range of applications.

“Given its processing power, Mercury5e is the smallest, most accurate and cost effective embedded RFID reader module, due to the combination of our RFID expertise and the use of the Intel R1000 Transceiver chip,” said Kevin Ashton, Vice President, Marketing, ThingMagic. “By significantly reducing size of an embedded reader, and capitalizing on the Intel R1000 Transceiver silicon, ThingMagic is enabling many more RFID applications, especially those that require powerful, mobile RFID readers with low power consumption and high processing power. Though it is half the thickness of the Mercury4e, the Mercury5e consumes less energy, operates in dense reader environments and works in multiple regions -- which is exactly what many of our customers have been requesting.”

Mercury5e is available now on an OEM basis to manufacturers of label makers, print and apply machines, and other embedded, mobile and handheld RFID devices.