Mountain View, Calif. - Nov. 30, 2000 - Scenix, a leading provider of solutions for embedding the Internet, today announced that it has changed its name to Ubicom, Inc., a name that was selected to more accurately reflect the company’s new direction. Known as supplier of the world’s most powerful and flexible microcontroller, and as provider of the only single-chip embedded Internet connectivity solution, Ubicom is now positioning itself to leverage the Internet infrastructure to enable universal device-to-device and device to human communication . Ubicom - a word derived from “ubiquitous communication” - will concentrate on delivering Internet Processors and protocol stacks to enable universal device networking.

“We’ve achieved significant success in a number of markets by shifting communications and control functions from silicon to software, including in such embedded Internet applications as home appliances and security and remote monitoring systems, and we’re going to maintain that technological approach,” said Bulent Celebi, Ubicom’s president and CEO. “But now we’re taking a step toward focusing the company’s efforts on developing products and establishing relationships that will let us use the Internet infrastructure and protocols to enable end-to-end device networking. Because our goal is to make communication truly ubiquitous, the name Ubicom accurately reflects who and what we are.”

The Internet has primarily been used for e-mail or as an information resource. More recently, there has been a great deal of interest in embedding Internet connectivity in such things as home appliances, office equipment, and remote monitoring and control devices. Under its previous name, Ubicom has been a leader in that effort.

According to Celebi, “We’ve heard from our customers that they need an end-to-end solution. To address this customer need, Ubicom has taken two steps. First, we’re working with industry leaders and start-ups to influence standards and fill in the product and service voids to ensure that our customers have the solutions they need. Second, we’ll soon be introducing a new family of software ‘ipModules’ and Internet Processors to address critical points in the end-to-end network, such as nodes, protocol converters, bridges, gateways and servers utilities.”

Jack Quinn, president of industry analyst firm Micrologic Research, said, “Over the last year, a lot of excitement has been generated over putting Internet connectivity into all kinds of things. People are talking about Web-enabled refrigerators, washing machines, security systems and utility meters. While that’s likely to grow into a huge market, it doesn’t address the larger need to actually link all those things in some kind of rational, reliable and secure manner. With its unique product approach, and its active courting of partners to provide the other pieces, Ubicom is definitely positioning itself to be a driving force in making the Internet a universal communications medium.”

Ubicom Technology
The core of Ubicom’s technology is its high-performance, deterministic Internet Processors, which feature on-chip flash memory into which are programmed pre-built software ipModules to configure and reconfigure the chip. The processors are optimized to support communications, Internet protocols, and control functions that are implemented in software, thereby providing the powerful, flexible platform that is necessary to support a wide range of applications. The combination of Internet Processors with software ipStacks (Internet protocol stacks) and such physical-layer ipModules as Ethernet and USB enables the creation of true single-chip solutions that, at consumer price points, connect devices to the Internet and also have the ability to run application programs.“Our idea of using pre-built software ipModules to configure a silicon platform has been used to cut time to market, reduce development and system costs, and provide unexcelled design flexibility across a variety of device types and applications,” said Stephan Thaler, Ubicom’s vice president of marketing. “We’re now going to extend that technology, and expand our capabilities through both R&D and partnerships, to meet the needs of our Internet customers.”

Will Strauss, president of industry analyst firm Forward Concepts, said, “As the convergence of computers, communications and consumer electronics continues to grow, so, too, does the need for a cost-effective way to interconnect all of those devices. Device-to-device communication over the Internet will undoubtedly come to represent a greater portion of the Net traffic than the traditional person-to-person or person-to-data resource usage, and successful companies in the Internet-enabling market will be those that recognize this and help to make it happen. Ubicom is making the product and partnership moves that should position it to be one of those winners.”