 |
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Issue 226 |
| Will Smith,
Editor |
 |
|
| Today's RFID
Update |
|
Editor's
Note: Today's top story is this week's introduction of
Reva Systems' Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP), an RFID reader
management device.
|
Reva
Releases Reader Management Device
Reva
Systems
of Chelmsford,
Massachusetts, this week unveiled it first product, the
Tag
Acquisition Processor (TAP)
.
Designed to assuage the persistent complexity and high
cost of today's deployments, the TAP is a 1U,
rack-mountable device that allows the management of RFID
readers across a facility. RFID Update spoke with Reva
CEO and co-founder Ashley Stephenson about the new
product.
According to Stephenson, the TAP is a
key component of the Tag Acquisition Network (TAN) RFID
architecture vision which the company has been touting
since it came out of stealth mode in June. The TAN is
modeled after today's common computing networks, to
which devices like computers, servers, printers, and
routers can be seamlessly added as necessary. Such
networks are reliable, scalable, and rapidly repeatable
in a way that the RFID implementations of today are
certainly not. After 18 months of speaking with
companies deploying RFID, Stephenson said Reva has heard
repeatedly that RFID will eventually be integrated as
just another component of the greater network. In the
long term, "they don't think of RFID as a silo of
servers," he said.
With a TAP sitting on an
enterprise network, RFID readers can be added and
removed quickly and seamlessly, in the plug-and-play
manner of today's corporate networks. Thus, the
laborious task of adding read points is vastly
simplified and deployments can happen "in a matter of
days, not months."
According to the Reva
literature, the TAP also offers the following:
- optimal usage of available RF spectrum
- seamless data integration with enterprise
applications
- powerful management console for configuration,
commissioning, and monitoring of RFID
systems
The device is available for shipment
now, with a $9,995 list price. Hewlett Packard and
Accenture have both deployed it in their RFID centers,
and it has been tested for interoperability with SAP,
TIBCO, and SeeBeyond.
When asked about how the
idea for the Tag Acquisition Network was conceived,
Stephenson cited his and fellow co-founder David Husak's
experience in the networking industry. Much of the
output in RFID has been driven primarily by hardware-
and, to a lesser extent, software-minded people. Owing
to this and to the RFID industry's relative immaturity,
the capacity for scalable and rapidly repeatable RFID
infrastructure networks had not yet gained traction,
even though the model is not a new one. Thus Stephenson
and Husak founded Reva, now 25 employees strong,
"specifically to address the RFID infrastructure
opportunity" using the principles and experience earned
from years in the networking industry. It will be
interesting to see how their approach is received by the
market.
|
Forward this to a
colleague
|
|
|
|
|
About RFID
Update - Launched in early 2004 to provide timely analysis
of RFID industry news, RFID Update publishes editorial
briefings every weekday for the growing ranks of top level
executives involved in the deployment of RFID projects. Each
issue distills the impact of global RFID developments by
providing an analytical summary of news and matters pertinent
to successful RFID implementations. Free for RFID executives
and professionals.
RFID Update Editor: Will Smith, editor@rfidupdate.com
Press
releases and public relations inquiries should be directed to
Will.
To advertise in RFID Update, email advertising@rfidupdate.com to request a media kit.
RFID Questions? Ask at RFID
Talk (
http://www.rfidtalk.com/
).
Forward
this issue
of RFID Update to a
colleague.
Recommend RFID Update to your colleagues.
Tell them to subscribe free at:
http://www.rfidupdate.com/
View
all past issues of RFID Update
in the
archive
.
Update your
subscription settings: subscriptions@rfidupdate.com
We
take your privacy seriously.
View our Privacy
Policy here.
RFID Update
the
RFID Industry Daily
http://www.rfidupdate.com
| Mailing address: |
RFID Update
3213 Duke Street
#266
Alexandria, VA
22314
|
© 2005, ALX Technologies, LLC. All Rights
Reserved.
|
| |