News

Arkados Demonstrates Simple and Smart Video Platform at HomePlug Executive Seminar Europe (17/11/2006)

Arkados, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkados Group, Inc. (OTC BB: AKDS), the HomePlug(r) Applications Company(tm), announced today that its new video platform will be demonstrated at the HomePlug Executive Seminar in Berlin on November 14, and at the Connections Europe Conference, November 15 and 16.

The system is a universal video hardware platform that includes the flexible Blackfin processor from Analog Devices, Inc., and can be used for a variety of video distribution applications in the home. The video platform uses the Arkados AI-1100 System-on-chip, and can adopt different functional "personalities" based upon firmware updates to the embedded Flash memory.

Jim Reeber, Director of Marketing for Arkados, said, "Many consumers want access to video and audio content throughout their homes, but are hesitant to spend the money to install dedicated wiring. Arkados is working to make the distribution of video content easy for end-users through an approach that requires no wiring. Using our solutions, electronics and appliance manufacturers can create devices that can be connected through the existing electrical wiring in the house rather than by running new wires."

He added, "Arkados includes HomePlug powerline technology and a powerful ARM processor inside our AI-1100 system-on-chip semiconductor. Combined with our firmware, we expect to enable product manufacturers to bring intelligent products to market more quickly and at a lower cost."

The HomePlug Powerline European Executive Seminar, on November 14 at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, will communicate and discuss the goals of the HomePlug Alliance (of which Arkados is a founding member), its standards, and present usage studies for network operators, utility companies, service providers, technology companies and consumer electronic product manufacturers.

The AI-1100 system-on-chip (SoC) is the first to combine a HomePlug physical layer (PHY) with programmable media access control (MAC), a wide variety of in-demand interfaces including digital audio and a very powerful and capable ARM926EJ-S processor enabling a wide range of applications in a single chip. The same chip that is used in the video platform being demonstrated in Berlin next week supports other in-home applications such as Internet radio, whole house audio, broadband sharing, gaming, and a host of other applications.

Powerline communications uses the existing electrical wiring within a residence as a networking infrastructure and enables the digital home applications without the requirement for new wires. The HomePlug specifications are industry standards for implementing powerline communications technology. Arkados' recently patented approach, announced earlier along with the company's HomePlug AV interoperability roadmap, overcomes the inherent limitations of carrying higher frequency signals over a home's power lines and uses the limited available bandwidth in the most efficient way, thereby maximizing the range of audio and video services that can be offered to the consumer.

www.Arkados.com