Sirit Announces Infinity Interrogator

By Mary Catherine O’Connor

May 2, 2006—RFID hardware provider Sirit unveiled the Infinity 510 UHF EPC Gen 2 interrogator (reader) at RFID Journal LIVE! in Las Vegas this week. Sirit says the interrogator’s Intel XScale 520 MHz control processor can use its application protocol interface to accommodate middleware or custom software applications running directly on the interrogator. The reader's ability to run middleware or other applications can lessen network traffic by performing tag data filtering, input/output device control, reader synchronization and other tasks.

The device is available in a North American model compliant with the Federal Communications Commission’s and Industry Canada’s radio frequency regulations. It can also be purchased as the 510w “world model,” which complies with Europe’s European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) regulations and the RFID-related radio-frequency guidelines enforced in many Asia-Pacific countries.

Sirit's new Infinity 510 UHF EPC Gen 2 interrogator, unveiled this week at RFID Journal LIVE!

In late June or early July, Sirit plans to begin certification-testing the 510 for conformance to the EPCglobal Gen 2 air interface protocol. The company will seek certifications for the interrogator’s single reader operation mode, as well as multiple- and dense-reader modes.

In addition to EPC Gen 2 tags, the 510 also reads ISO 18000-6B and Ucode 1.19 tags. It does not read EPC Gen 1 tags, however.

Back in March, Tom Dziersk, then the recently named president and CEO of SAMSys Technologies, provided RFID Journal a preview of the new reader, which SAMSys based on an architecture enabling the original equipment manufacturers to chose different combinations of its components to create new interrogator designs (see SAMSys to Unveil RFID Reader Platform). Sirit says this approach also suits its OEM business strategy.

According to Sirit, the 510 is available to select customers now, and will be released in production quantities at the end of June. The firm expects to release pricing for both the 510 and 510w by mid-May, with the 510 offered at a lower price than the 510w.