Echelon Releases Connectivity Software for Residential GatewaysAccelerates Connection of Everyday Devices in the Home to the Internet and Service Providers(SEATTLE, Wash.-May 10, 2001) - Today at the CONNECTIONS™2001 Conference taking place from May 9 - 11, Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), booth number 400, announced the immediate availability of its LonWorks® Bundle Deployment Kit. With this new software, companies building residential gateways based on the Open Services Gateway Initiative's (OSGi's) services gateway specification can 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. Pre-release copies of the LonWorks Bundle Deployment Kit are already in use by several residential gateway manufacturers, providers of OSGi-compatible software frameworks, and home appliance manufacturers. First shipments of the final version of the Kit are expected in the fourth quarter of this year. "We, along with most other industry observers, believe that the ability to deliver value-added services to networks of smart devices in the home will drive the growth of the home networking industry," said Damian Inglin, Echelon's product marketing manager for network services. "The LonWorks Bundle Deployment Kit makes it easy to create rich and valuable services that leverage the functionality of networks of LonWorks devices to help consumers save money, enhance their security, increase their comfort, and simplify their lives. For instance, an OSGi service could leverage the motion sensors in a LonWorks based lighting system to deliver a home monitoring/security system that sends an e-mail or page and calls the police when unauthorized motion is detected. Additionally, OSGi services can integrate what would otherwise be separate networks; for example, LonWorks based lighting devices and HAVi based audio/visual devices, into integrated applications, such as a home theater system that automatically dims the lights when a movie is started." OSGi is an independent, non-profit corporation working with more than 85 member companies which include service providers, network operators and device manufacturers who are working to define and promote open specifications for the delivery of multiple services over wide-area networks to local networks and devices. Echelon serves on OSGi's Board of Directors along with Deutsche Telekom, Electricite de France, Ericsson, IBM, Motorola, Nokia, Oracle, Philips Consumer Electronics, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, and Whirlpool. The OSGi specification enables service operators to dynamically load and upgrade services in compliant residential gateways that interact with local networks and devices. By eliminating the need to "roll trucks" to upgrade services and by enabling multiple networks and devices to share a common gateway, OSGi lowers the deployment and life-cycle costs of delivering multiple broadband and other value-added services to the home. Additionally, the OSGi specification enables value-added services to run on any compliant gateway, from any manufacturer, using any operating system and any microprocessor. This enables network operators to mix-and-match gateways from multiple providers that are tailored to the various needs of their subscriber base and provides value-added service developers with a large and open base of products upon which to run their services. According to Schelley Olhava, senior analyst, IDC, "The development of standards through which companies can develop services and applications for the home will be crucial for driving long-term growth in the home networking market. Services that leverage intelligent devices will prove to be popular among households as they promise to offer real, tangible benefits." The LonWorks Bundle Deployment Kit allows for the creation of cost-effective, small footprint solutions enabled by Echelon's LNS™ management software located in the gateway operator's service center. The LonWorks bundle is available for licensing and can be used with any framework that complies with the 1.0 Open Services Gateway specification, including Sun's Java Embedded Server™ (JES™). The kit includes ready-to-use bundles, tools and documentation needed to deploy LonWorks devices and services in an OSGi environment, and a number of device access bundle examples to enable rapid prototyping by home appliance and home automation manufacturers, gateway operators and carriers. Parties interested in the pre-release LonWorks Bundle Deployment Kit can receive more information by contacting Echelon at osgibundle@echelon.com. Further information about OSGi can be found at http://www.osgi.org. About Echelon Corporation 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. ### 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, LNS, 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
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