RFID News Roundup

Reva Systems Adds Overseas Partners
RFID infrastructure provider Reva Systems has announced the first group of 12 systems integrators in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to join its partnership program. The partners have established joint service delivery agreements and signed reseller contracts with Reva. New systems integration partners include AIDA Center, LogSystems, Matiq, Meco Group, Mieloo & Alexander, NGB ID, PDS, Rodata Mobile Computing, Sinel Systems, Tagstone, TBN and TETAS. Meco Group, for example, is leveraging Reva's Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) servers to implement an item-level tagging and tracking system for Lemmi Fashion that will span countries from Asia to Germany (see Lemmi Fashion Changes Frequency). Reva's TAP servers are rack-mountable appliances that can be employed to centrally control a network of RFID interrogators. They can also filter and aggregate tag reads before sending the tag data to back-end systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. Reva expects the new partnerships to help expand its footprint in the EMEA regions. Partners will be supported by Reva's existing sales, business development, marketing and systems engineering team based in Europe.

RSI ID Technologies Releases New Tag Designs
San Diego-based RSI ID Technologies has introduced four RFID inlays with new antenna designs—Corkscrew, Interval, KAT2 and Cube2—that feature NXP Semiconductors' next-generation Ucode G2XL and G2XM chips. The G2XM and XL ICs offer scalable EPC numbers up to 240 bits, and the G2XM provides 512 bits of programmable user memory (see NXP Boosts EPC Gen 2 Tag Memory, Performance). All four RSI designs are currently in production.

Axcess Dual Active-Passive RFID Tag Available Now
Axcess International, located in Carollton, Texas, has announced that it is now shipping its Dot chip, which provides dual active-passive capabilities, enabling it to operate as either a passive EPC Gen 2 UHF tag or an active 433 MHz tag. First announced in October 2006, the Dot chip combines a processor, memory and wireless communications into one chip about the size of a single grain of rice. The chip can run for years on a watch battery, the company claims, and can store at least three pages of information in memory (see New Axcess Chip Can Be Active or Operate as Passive Gen 2). The Dot chip is designed to be used in a variety of applications, such as a long-range bar code, an electronic property tag, an automatic building access badge, a vehicle identification tag, an electronic cargo container seal or a wireless sensor transmitter. The first end-user product to use the Dot technology will be in a card-based form factor, so that it can be employed as an ultra-thin tag to identify and track assets, vehicles and workers. According to Axcess, that product will ship in December.