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Echelon Speeds Development of Home Automation Products with Introduction of Power Line Chip Featuring Self-Installation (26/4/2007)

Echelon's New Smart Chip Simplifies Development of Next Generation Products for Energy Management, Home Monitoring and Control by Consumers and Utilities

Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), a leading provider of networking technology that is used to manage and reduce energy consumption, today announced a new power line based integrated circuit that promises to speed and simplify the creation of consumer friendly home automation products. Echelon's PL 3170 Power Line Smart Transceiver allows manufacturers to create networked home control products that install automatically when plugged into a wall - eliminating the fear and technology complexity that consumers associate with home automation. This new power line smart transceiver is the latest addition to the company's LonWorks(R) products and Digital Home(R) technologies - hardware and software products that are helping to drive the worldwide home automation market.

"Energy management is the key driver for home automation, and the devices that can help make a home more energy efficient - lights, fans, blinds, smart appliances, furnaces, air-conditioners, and power outlets - are already connected to the power wiring. With our power line technology, these devices are already connected to the network," said Bea Yormark, Echelon's president and COO. "The new power line smart chip adds automatic installation to what is, hands down, the most reliable solution on the home automation market today. Now manufacturers have a 'no new wires' home automation solution that's also low cost, easy-to-develop, and doesn't require the help of an installer or electrician to install." Echelon's automatic installation software is known as Interoperable Self-Installation (ISI).

Echelon's PL 3170 Smart Transceiver combines the industry's leading power line signaling technology with an applications processor and ISI software - all in a single chip. The new chip also allows appliance manufacturers to easily and inexpensively create products in accordance with the CECED (European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances) Household Appliances Control and Monitoring - Application Interworking Specification (AIS) standard. The PL 3170 Smart Transceiver can be used in conjunction with Echelon's full range of LonWorks products, or independently.

The PL 3170 Power Line Smart Transceiver will be available in summer of 2007.

www.echelon.com