News

UPnP Technology Continues to Gain Momentum (12/8/2004)

The UPnP Implementers Corporation (UIC) and the UPnP(TM) Forum today announced that industry leaders Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs(R)) and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) are the newest elected members of the UPnP Forum Steering Committee.

"It is very exciting to welcome CableLabs and Texas Instruments as our newest Steering Committee members," said Toby Nixon, Chair of the UPnP Forum Steering Committee. "I am confident that their representation and valuable contributions will prove to be important assets toward the continuing momentum and development of UPnP technology."

The Steering Committee provides overall direction to the Forum and is comprised of organizations which specialize in the fields of consumer electronics, computing, home automation, home security, appliances, printing, photographic devices, computer networking and mobile products.

The UPnP(TM) Forum is an industry initiative with more than 690 members working together to develop standards to enable simple and robust connectivity among stand-alone devices and PCs from many different vendors. The UIC is a non-profit corporation that certifies UPnP devices.

"With 18 certified CableHome(TM) residential gateway devices certified to date, CableLabs is incorporating the UPnP specifications into its CableHome Specifications. This will insure interoperability of cable services with the growing volume of connected devices that conform to the UPnP specifications and protocols. CableLabs brings a service provider's perspective to the UPnP Forum, representing over 80% of the US cable subscribers," said Ralph Brown, Senior Vice President of Broadband Access at CableLabs.

"Texas Instruments focuses on integrating Voice, Data, and multimedia content seamlessly across the Internet, media, enterprise and home domains. We strongly support the UPnP(TM) Forum as a provider of open specifications that enable connectivity between multiple devices and are excited about bringing our global expertise in consumer electronics to the Steering Committee," said Will Lumpkins, Sr. Hardware Systems Manager, New Business Development, Broad Band Communications Group, Texas Instruments Inc.

In an additional Steering Committee development, Renesas Technology Corp., a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, was elected to a two-year term. Renesas had previously served on the Steering Committee as the designated representative of Mitsubishi.

During elections, the following companies were re-elected to Steering Committee seats for two-year terms: Canon, Inc., LG Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, Nokia Corporation, Panasonic, Pioneer Research, Ricoh Company, Ltd.. Continuing Committee member companies include: Broadcom Corporation, Echelon Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Pelco, Inc., Philips Consumer Electronics, Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd., Siemens AG, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Inc.

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