Press Releases (2005)
Printronix and Impinj Demonstrate Fully Interoperable Gen 2 Tag and Printer Encoding System
IRVINE, Calif., and SEATTLE, June 6, 2005 — Printronix Inc. (NASDAQ: PTNX), the leading integrated supply-chain printing solutions manufacturer, and Impinj Inc., the Self- Adaptive Silicon® company, today announced that they have jointly demonstrated EPCglobal™ Generation 2 (Gen 2) interoperability. During the demonstration, Printronix successfully encoded, read and printed labels containing the Impinj Monza™ Gen 2 radio frequency identification (RFID) tag silicon inlays, using the Printronix SL5000r MP printer. Impinj validated the encoding results with successful reads using fixed reader positions. The demonstration proves interoperability among the Gen 2 products developed by the two companies and enables Printronix and Impinj to advance the time to market for their Gen 2 offerings.
The recent demonstration alerts users that they can take immediate advantage of Impinj's Propeller™ antenna designed for Zuma™ Rewritable Class 0 within their own RFID testing labs and supply-chain implementations using Printronix's SL5000r MP printer. Users also can migrate to Gen 2 Propeller tags once printer firmware and tags are readily available for Monza Gen 2 silicon.
"This represents another ‘first' for Printronix and Impinj," said Andy Chapman, senior vice president of engineering and product marketing, and chief technology officer, Printronix. "Printronix was the first to market with a commercially available UHF EPC printer in 2003 and captured the top global market share position in 2004. Impinj has its own list of industry-defining milestones. Now, Printronix is the first printer company to fully support the Zuma command set and demonstrate Gen 2 encoding using the same Impinj tag design within our existing SL5000r RFID printer."
"We are pleased that Printronix, as a leader in UHF encoding, has chosen to support our Zuma and Monza tag chips and the Gen 2 standard," said Dr William Colleran, president and chief executive officer, Impinj. "During the demonstration, we were able to show that the excellent read range of the Zuma RFID tag carries forward with the Monza Gen 2 silicon. The Printronix printer takes advantage of the chips' very high write speed, attaining excellent programming throughput and robustness. Plus, the availability of both chips on identical antennas will help customers transition from Gen 1 to Gen 2 in a seamless manner."
About Gen 2
The EPCglobal Gen 2 protocol, destined to become the leading RFID specification for the UHF band centered around 900 MHz, overcomes the many limitations of EPCglobal's legacy Class 0 and Class 1 solutions. Gen 2 provides a comprehensive framework with enhanced features and improved performance such as operation in highdensity reader environments, compliance with global regulations, superior tag readability, fast read rates, field rewriteability, and enhanced security and privacy.
About Printronix Inc.
Since 1974, Printronix Inc. (NASDAQ: PTNX) has created innovative printing solutions for the industrial marketplace and supply chain. The company is the worldwide market leader in enterprise solutions for line matrix printing and has earned an outstanding reputation for its high-performance thermal and fanfold laser printing solutions. Printronix also has become an established leader in pioneering technologies, including radio frequency identification (RFID) printing, bar code compliance and networked printer management. Printronix is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. For company information, see www.printronix.com.
About Impinj Inc.
Impinj Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon® technology enables its two synergistic business lines: high performance RFID products and cost-effective semiconductor intellectual property (SIP). Impinj is a leading contributor to the RFID standards for high volume supply-chain applications worldwide and is leveraging its technical expertise and industry partnerships to deliver the GrandPrix™ solution, comprising tags, readers, software, systems integration and highvolume manufacturing to offer low-cost UHF RFID that just works. Impinj's innovative SIP products, core to the company's RFID tags, are licensed to leading semiconductor companies worldwide, allowing them to cost-effectively integrate crucial nonvolatile memory (NVM) alongside analog and digital functionality on a single chip. Impinj's SIP products include the popular AEON™ memory, the world's first rewritable NVM technology compatible with logic CMOS manufacturing. For more information, visit www.impinj.com.