A new partnership between Ember and Tendril Networks will create the first Web Services-based technology to give companies a quick and easy way to build applications that draw information from ZigBee networks. ZigBee is a wireless, standards-based radio technology employed in remote monitoring and control.

The technology that Tendril will create for ZigBee networks is called a "service broker." It uses Ember's ZigBee-ready semiconductor and software platform. The service broker takes the burden away from developers who normally would have to spend considerable time learning the intricacies of the ZigBee networking stack.

Instead, they can build applications in familiar, higher-level languages, like Java and Web Services, using the service broker to automatically extract and manage data transactions across the ZigBee network. For example, a company could use Ember's technology and Tendril's service broker with BACnet - a popular building automation and control application language - to create a new wireless control and monitoring system for HVAC equipment.

Tim Enwall, Tendril CEO, said, "We're eliminating the need to 'node code. With the standardization of ZigBee, we saw an opportunity to help the larger community of developers accelerate the market by easing the system-wide application development. Similar to the way WebSphere and WebLogic middleware accelerated application development for the Internet, we envision building a comprehensive set of Ember-enabled wireless network services enabling rapid application development using languages/environments like Java, Web Services and .NET."

Tendril partnered with Ember because it offered the industry's first complete, end-to-end ZigBee-ready platform which was already proven in numerous real world applications, as well as Ember's ZigBee expertise and leadership. Ember is a promoter of the ZigBee Alliance, and its semiconductor system is the National Technical Systems' (NTS) "Golden Suite" for evaluating IEEE 802.15.4 products for interoperability.

"Tendril Networks is taking advantage of Web Services technology to bring easy-to-use and to-deploy solutions for sensor and control network application developers," said Venkat Bahl, Ember's vice president of marketing. "The beauty of Tendril's solution is in its broadness and openness. It supports a variety of hardware platforms and programming platforms, delivering the system as both a developer and deployment kit."