09/27/2005

iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY), today announced the release of RFID Anywhere 2.0, the next generation of the company’s software platform that seeks to provide an extensible environment for developing and managing robust, highly-distributed radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions.

The company added the following details:

Today the company also announced an RFID Anywhere Developer Program that provides developer versions of the software, comprehensive support materials and general RFID educational content to customers, partners, and prospects.

“Since releasing the initial version of RFID Anywhere in early 2005, we have seen significant interest from enterprises, systems integrators and application developers that are faced with the complexities of RFID implementations,” said Steve Robb, senior director of marketing, iAnywhere. “Building on iAnywhere‘s expertise in mobile and widely-distributed computing environments, RFID Anywhere 2.0 brings together our vision for the platform with the substantial requirements that large-scale adopters of RFID technology have encountered. It addresses the challenges raised by varying protocol standards, the broad range of hardware devices available, and the distributed nature of typical RFID network components.”

RFID Anywhere simplifies RFID projects every step of the way, reducing both up-front development expense and ongoing operating costs in the following areas:

• Development – RFID Anywhere handles interfaces with RFID devices (readers, printers), and non-RFID data collection technology (bar code equipment, remote monitoring devices), across multiple protocols, leaving developers to focus on business logic. New code can be tested through the RFID Simulator without investments in readers and tags.



• Operations – Edge processing allows business logic to be distributed in the network as appropriate for gathering data from RFID and bar code equipment. This allows data to be processed in a timelier manner to drive rapid response when necessary. It minimizes RFID data traffic on the network and guarantees data delivery – even across occasionally connected networks.



• Management – True enterprise management and security are extended to the RFID network even as it spans multiple locations, ensuring maximum uptime and availability.

As RFID technology has evolved, a major hurdle for early adopters has been the proliferation of various standards and protocols. RFID Anywhere 2.0 allows for multiple data protocols in a single network, including standards-based RFID and barcode protocols in the ISO and EPC families, as well as customized tag formats required by certain applications. Most notably, the EPCglobal Generation 2 (GEN 2) standard is fully supported within the product. At the heart of the solution is the new Data Protocol Processor, which operates as a “universal translator” for handling the broad variety of protocols and tag formats.