June 20, 2002
San Diego, CA

Compendium Technologies announced today two strategic alliances through which they have acquired a right to resell RFID technology, and have licensed the most powerful and comprehensive set of RFID CASE tools available.

The first alliance is with Intermec Technologies, the market leader in 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz RFID technology.  Intermec has been involved with RFID since the mid-1990s, but is most recognized for their high-quality barcoding and wireless networking capabilities.

The second alliance is with Melrose Data, Inc. of Plano, TX.  Melrose has been heavily involved with Intermec's RFID efforts over the past three years, and have provided training for and/or consulted with most, if not all, of Intermec's certified RFID partners and customers.  Over the past three years, Melrose has developed a number of Computer Aided Systems Engineering (CASE) tools for use within the RFID-enabled systems.  Short for Radio Frequency IDentification, RFID is the latest technology for industries involved in manufacturing, retail, material tracking, or logistics.  Seen by many as an intelligent and efficient replacement for barcoding technology, RFID provides the ability to store hundreds of  individual data elements on an individual RFID tag, rather than a single piece of information.  Further, the data on an RFID tag can be encoded in a hands-free, wireless fashion over distances of up to 15 feet.  This data can be encoded on many tags simultaneously through materials such as cardboard, wood, glass, plastic, and paper.  The most well-known application of RFID to date is automatic fee collection on toll roads.

Among the technology that has been acquired from Melrose Data, Inc. is the RFID Automated Platform (RAP), a set of powerful network-enabled RFID software tools which makes it easy to set up and use RFID technology in a wide range of vertical applications.  This platform includes planning software that can model existing or future RFID-enabled systems, several code generation tools, configuration management software, a tool to automatically generate and configure one or more database tables, and an RFID environment debugging wizard.  Through an agreement with Melrose Data, Inc. of Plano TX, this exceptional platform will be used by Compendium to rapidly create custom Intellitag RFID solutions.  Historically, companies that are new to RFID go through a learning process that often lasts several months.  Using RAP, Compendium is able to offer complete RFID packages that have been customized to specific user needs.  These packages will include options for site survey, hardware, software, installation, test, and certification ... all at prices that rival the price of existing off-the-shelf systems.

RFID technology is useful for automated inventory tracking and management. An RFID system involves the use of intelligent tags upon which small amounts of data can be encoded, and a reading device, complete with antenna, that can read from and write to those tags. The RFID reader interrogates tags within its radio distance, providing a way to track inventory without the use of bar or code scanners that require a person to place an item in front of a scanner.

When planning for an RFID-enabled system, RAP can be used in a variety of ways, including the design of tag data, definition of reader operations, throughput analysis, parts list generation, requirements and design documentation, actual testing of readers and tags against real or simulated RFID data operations, and finally automatic creation of source code. Through RAP's main console, the definition of system components and interfaces is a straightforward exercise. Stated simply, RAP makes it easy to manage many aspects of the components commonly present in an RFID-enabled system.

Compendium Technologies, Inc. offers a wide variety of custom software services for RFID technologies, scalable distributed computing, high performance computing, and the internet, including Java, Microsoft COM/DCOM, CORBA and Beowulf technologies. Consider hiring Compendium to meet your custom software needs. Compendium Technologies, Inc. can be reached at (877) 999-9CTI or by email at info@compendium-tech.com, or on the web at http://www.compendium-tech.com.