Accent Extends Its Market Leading Position In ZigBee Solutions With ZigBee IP and SEP 2.0

The new offering complements Accent’s comprehensive software support which already includes ZigBee PRO as well as other critical communication stacks required by the smart grid industry.

ZigBee technology has become the de-facto standard for enabling home area network (HAN) communication from a residence’s smart meter and has been integrated in the majority of advanced smart meters already installed. Similarly, Accent’s has achieved a dominant market position with 1 in 4 ZigBee-enabled smart meters shipped in the last two years incorporating the company’s ZigBee technology.

Now, as the industry seeks to migrate to ZigBee IP and SEP 2.0, Accent’s highly integrated ASMgrid2 standard product offering provides an ideal solution for equipment vendors struggling with product scalability while reducing cost. For example, the ASM201 integrates a powerful 192 MHz ARM926EJ-STM as well as a 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 radio and energy measurement to provide a true single-chip meter solution. For maximum storage scalability at minimum cost, the device leverages a combination of embedded Flash and SDRAM technology.

“As a key driver to SEP 2.0’s definition and as a solution provider, Grid2Home is excited to be working with Accent to help proliferate this technology to smart metering products”, said Rick Kornfeld, CEO of Grid2Home. “This adoption is necessary to support the growing ecosystem of interoperable smart energy devices in the home.”

“The integration of IPv6 into ZigBee communication represents a major catalyst for the home area networking market”, said Federico Arcelli, CEO of Accent. “We are pleased to utilize Grid2Home’s advanced SEP 2.0 solution and to offer this critical capability to our customers. Looking ahead, we also see great potential for ZigBee IP based products to adopt additional PHY options, such as sub-GHz and PLC, which are already available in the ASMgrid2 offering.”

Availability

ASMgrid2 development kits with integrated SEP 2.0 will be available this quarter. The certification process for SEP 2.0 products is still being defined by Consortium of SEP 2.0 Interoperability (CSEP) and is expected to start Q2 2013.