[January 30, 2013]

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

Accent, a world leading semiconductor supplier of smart grid communications and metering technologies, announced today that it will incorporate the ZigBee® Alliance's IPv6-based software stack developed by Grid2Home, developer of Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP 2.0) communication technologies, as a part of its innovative ASMgrid2 silicon and software system solutions. 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-S^TM as well as a 2.4 GHz IEEE (News - Alert) 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 deinition 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.

About Accent

Founded in 1993, Accent (www.accent-soc.com) is an ISO 9001:2008 certified world leading semiconductor supplier of communications and metering technologies for the Smart Grid industry. The company is backed by renowned investors such as Sofinnova Partners and Tallwood Venture Capital. Accent is a worldwide operation with offices in Italy, China, France, and United States. Accent's ASMgrid product families integrate the widest technology breadth supporting current and future Smart Grid standards to provide equipment manufacturers off-the-shelf standard products plus complete software platforms for rapid time to market and significantly lowered production costs.

About Grid2Home

Grid2Home is a communications software company at the forefront of Smart Grid connectivity technologies. Used across a range of devices such as smart meters, appliances and electric vehicles, the standards-compliant G2H-SE2 Software is portable across all major semiconductor platforms and physical layers including 802.15.4, 802.15.4g, 802.11 and Power Line Communications, allowing maximum product development flexibility and easy integration for Smart Grid device manufacturers. Active in driving Smart Energy Profile (SEP 2) communications standards for the Home Area Network (HAN), the Grid2Home management team and board of directors bring an unmatched combination of business savvy and communications protocol expertise to the fast-growing Smart Grid market. For more information see www.grid2home.com.

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