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Echelon's LonWorks® Networks Provide Smart Home Solutions At CONNECTIONS™2001

End-to-End Platform Enables Value-Added Services that Create Cost, Energy Savings

(SEATTLE, Wash.-May 10, 2001) - At the CONNECTIONS™ 2001 Conference taking place from May 9 – 11, Platinum Sponsor Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is showcasing how networks of everyday devices create a smart environment that provides convenience and cost savings to consumers. These networks, enabled by the LonWorks platform, provide the infrastructure needed to deploy value-added services such as energy management, appliance control, and remote diagnostics today. With more than 14,000,000 smart devices installed in homes, buildings, and other applications worldwide, Echelon is the leader in networking everyday devices to each other and to the Internet. Echelon's booth (number 400) contains solutions for the three main constituents that comprise the end-to-end value chain in the home market: device manufacturers, gateway manufacturers, and service providers.

Echelon's booth contains two examples of how smart LonWorks devices can bring cost savings and convenience to consumers. The first "home network" shows how smart LonWorks devices can automatically reduce energy consumption in response to real-time power availability signals from a utility company. This eliminates the need for the utility to shut down large portions of their distribution grid to avoid a total power outage, as is the case today. Products included in the display include a LonWorks enabled washing machine and microwave oven from Samsung that communicate over the home's power lines using Echelon's PLT-22 power line transceiver; WattNode power measurement devices from Continental Control Systems; power line lamp control modules; and a residential gateway based on the Open Services Gateway Initiative's (OSGi's) specification using Sun Microsystem's Java™ Embedded Server (JES™) product.

The second "home network" on display in Echelon's booth contains an Internet appliance/automation hub, energy meter, and oven from Merloni Elettrodomestici of Italy that also use Echelon's PLT-22 Power Line Transceiver. In addition to energy applications, the demonstration shows how Merloni's "e-cooking" service can simplify consumer's lives while improving the quality of the food they cook. When the homeowner selects a recipe using the Leon@rdo Internet appliance, a cooking profile is delivered to the oven over the home's power wiring. This profile contains a series of instructions that the oven follows to decide how and when to preheat, set the temperature and timing, and, finally, to power off.

"Echelon's platforms are making integrated systems a reality for more homes around the world than any technology available today," said Tricia Parks, president of Parks Associates, the premier market research and consulting company specializing in home networks and the consumer market and host of CONNECTIONS 2001. "By combining the power of the Internet with home controls connectivity, more homes will have the kind of practical applications that consumers are seeking."

"What distinguishes Echelon from the rest of the companies now entering the home networking market is that we deliver a complete and scalable end-to-end infrastructure for the entire home networking value chain," said Bea Yormark, Echelon's vice president of sales and marketing and a speaker at CONNECTIONS 2001. "We, our partners, and our customers are delivering today on what was once a futuristic dream and to some is still only a promise: that LonWorks networks are real and happening right now, all over the world, including the LonWorks infrastructure that will be deployed to 27 million Italian homes through our project with the Italian utility Enel SpA. Echelon has the only solution with millions of devices installed and field-proven power line technology that, quite simply, works."

In related show news, Echelon announced the immediate availability of its LonWorks Bundle Deployment Kit. This new software allows companies building residential gateways based on OSGi's services gateway specification to quickly and easily add LonWorks support to their products, enabling them to connect and interact with a growing array of smart LonWorks devices for the home. In addition, Home Director Inc., ProSyst and Echelon announced that the companies are collaborating on a pilot program to deploy the next generation of Internet-based home networking software applications and services using open-standards service gateways. The program will demonstrate how manufacturers and service providers can offer a wide range of Internet-based home services and software applications, as well as the benefits for homeowners with Internet access to devices and information in the home.

CONNECTIONS provides industries developing and marketing components, products, and services for in-home networks and gateways with the opportunity to see the latest in technology and standards advances; learn from leading companies about their initiatives and perspectives; and network with peers from all over the world. At CONNECTIONS 2001, more than 100 companies are exhibiting and more than 50 leaders are speaking in sessions with topics ranging from DSL advances to transmission media standards to current and "around the corner" services. More information can be found at http://www.connectionsconference.com/events/conn2001/conn2001.html.

About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is the world leader in networking everyday devices. The company offers a comprehensive line of hardware and software products for automating building, home, industrial, transportation, and utility applications using LonWorks® networks, an international, cross-industry, open standard for interoperable device networks. Echelon is Bringing the Internet to Life™ by linking the millions of everyday devices connected with LonWorks networks to the Internet.

Echelon is based in Sunnyvale, California with international offices in China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Further information can be found at http://www.echelon.com.

From October 23-24, Echelon and Messe Frankfurt GmbH are holding LonWorld™ 2001, the world's premier event devoted solely to LonWorks industry, in Frankfurt, Germany. LonWorld 2001 promises to be the largest-ever gathering of LonWorks developers, integrators, end-users, and other participants in the LonWorks industry. Interested parties should visit http://www.LonWorldexpo.com for further details.

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Echelon, LonWorks, LonMark, the LonMark logo, and the Echelon logo are trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. Bringing the Internet to Life and LonWorld are trademarks of Echelon Corporation. Other marks belong to their respective holders.

This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties pertaining to the timing and level of customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for Echelon's products and services, acceptance of Echelon's products for use in home networks, risks that the research and development activities with Enel are not successful, do not meet their target dates, or are terminated, or that the contemplated transactions are challenged by third parties, and other risks identified in Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact Information

Press Contacts:

 

Lyn Balistreri
Echelon Corporation
408-938-5202
lbalistreri@echelon.com

 

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