GainSpan and Ubiquitous Partner to Advance Home Energy Management Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GainSpan^® Corporation, a leader in low power Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi connectivity for the Internet of Things, and Ubiquitous Corporation (JASDAQ NEO: 3858), a Tokyo-based leading embedded software company, are working together to develop an ECHONET Lite compliant solution for energy management for residential and commercial applications. The new solution, which features a GainSpan low-power Wi-Fi module and Ubiquitous ECHONET Lite-based middleware, will reduce the time, effort and cost in getting to market ECHONET Lite-enabled devices, such as home appliances, smart meters, smart plugs and solar panels.

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The ECHONET Specification is a protocol for linking home appliances made by different manufacturers using easily installed transmission media in home networks.  In December 2011, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry certified it for use as a standard Home Energy Management System (HEMS) protocol in order to promote utilization of energy efficiency. ECHONET is similar to Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP 2.0) for Home Area Networks (HAN) in the United States. 

Energy saving measures is a top priority in Japan due to increasing environmental awareness as well as concerns over the electricity supply since the Japanese Earthquake.  As a result, the HEMS market in Japan is expected to grow significantly over the next two decades.  Nikkei BP Clean Tech Institute forecasts that the cumulative spending for the total HEMS and home controller market will exceed $1.6 trillion by 2030.

The new GainSpan/Ubiquitous module is a one-stop solution that integrates all components necessary for WLAN in a simple compact system.   Ubiquitous' ECHONET Lite compliant middleware running on the Wi-Fi module uses just 10KB of memory.  Any microcontroller—even a resource constrained 8- or 16-bit unit—can be used because all the stack, including the ECHONET Lite middleware, are running on the module.

Several major air conditioning manufacturers have already showed strong interest in the new ECHONET Lite compliant solution. 

"With the increased concern about energy, adoption of ECHONET Lite in Japan for HEMS is growing.  We expect to be among the first providers of ECHONET Lite compliant products," said Hiroshi Mihara, president, Ubiquitous Corp.  "With its ultra-low power consumption, ease of use, reliability and upgradability, GainSpan's GS1011M Wi-Fi module provided an excellent foundation for implementation of the ECHONET Lite compliant middleware.  We look forward to continuing our partnership to develop more innovative solutions to advance energy management initiatives."   

"Smart energy devices are a key market for us.  Similar to our development for SEP 2.0, we believe ECHONET Lite is critical to the Japanese market," said Bernard Aboussouan, vice president of marketing, GainSpan.  "We are very proud to be working with Ubiquitous to make it possible for device manufacturers to bring out new ECHONET Lite-enabled consumer appliances in less time."

A prototype of the new solution will be shown at Embedded Technology 2012, November 14 – 16 in Yokohama, Japan.  The Ubiquitous booth is B-26.

About Ubiquitous Corporation
Ubiquitous, founded in 2001, was established with the dream of a ubiquitous network connecting the various devices that we use today so seamlessly. Ubiquitous is committed to contributing to this endeavor through developing the world's most compact, efficient and high-speed network and database software. More information on Ubiquitous is available at http://www.ubiquitous.co.jp/En/

About GainSpan Corporation
GainSpan is the leading semiconductor solutions company in low power Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi connectivity for the Internet of Things. Its easy-to-use system-on-chip (SoC), modules and software, let customers leverage the large installed base of Wi-Fi access points and smartphones to create connected products for healthcare, smart energy and control/monitoring in industrial, commercial and residential markets.  The solutions feature an ultra-low power SoC that consumes a few µA of standby current and goes from standby to active mode in a few ms.  www.gainspan.com.

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Media Contact:
Carol Felton, Communications/PR
GainSpan
T | 408-807-3780
[email protected]

SOURCE GainSpan Corporation

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