Chipcon, Figure 8 present ZigBee in Z-Gate reference design

Power RF chipset firm Chipcon AS and Figure 8 Wireless, a provider of ZigBee ready software and firmware have demonstrated a version of its Z-Gate reference design. The Z-Gate provided interoperability between ZigBee nodes built on the ZigBee Alliance's Home Controls - Lighting profile and LonWorks-based devices including Echelon's LonPoint and an access control node from e-Structures. A PC-based application also controls the ZigBee nodes through the gateway's IP port using .xml.

First announced at the ZigBee Alliance Open House in San Francisco, the Z-Gate prototype represents the first step in delivering a solution to OEMs that have an installed base in one or more fieldbussses or need to make their ZigBee solutions accessible to enterprise applications.

"The Z-Gate prototype is designed to demonstrate to the OEM controls community of Figure 8 and Chipcon's commitment to deliver end-to-end solutions for ZigBee." commented John Morris, VP of ZigBee Marketing for Figure 8 Wireless, "Our mission is to take as much infrastructure development off the OEMs plate so they can concentrate on doing what they do best, deliver control and automation products, and leave the rest to us," Morris added.

Z-Gate, once in final form will be made available in a free-of-charge reference design for the hardware and operating system software. For OEMs that desire to develop additional fieldbus drivers or develop solutions for user defined proprietary interfaces in their existing products there will be a Z-Gate development tool available separately at a price TBD.