IRVINE, Calif., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Starport Systems, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company developing RF and mixed-signal system-on-chip (SOC) solutions, today announced the industry's first single-chip EPC Gen2 / ISO18000-6C UHF RFID reader, targeting convergence of RFID applications in mobile devices.

Sampling today, the SP7001 offers the smallest, lowest power and most cost-effective solution for Gen2 UHF RFID readers. The small footprint, low power and low cost solution will enable a broad range of applications for UHF RFID deployment, including asset tracking as well as various forms of information logging and retrieval.

The SP7001 solution allows the development of mobile UHF RFID readers that, when combined with the emerging NFC (Near Field Communication) readers in cell phones, will enable the convergence of all mobile RFID applications, creating a significant ecosystem among manufacturers, retailers, cellular operators and consumers.

"Single-chip solutions have been the catalyst for the mass adoption of various wireless technologies such as WLAN and Bluetooth. With a single-chip solution, our customers will be able to unleash the many advantages of the UHF RFID technology and develop new products and applications," said Dr. Armond Hairapetian, president and chief executive officer of Starport Systems. "Unlike NFC readers, UHF reader technology has been trapped in very expensive, power hungry and bulky multi-chip solutions. The SP7001 single-chip UHF reader will change the landscape and open the door for the convergence of RFID applications in mobile platforms."

Designed in standard CMOS technology, the SP7001 integrates all RF, mixed-signal, digital signal processing (DSP) and media access controller (MAC) functions onto a single silicon die. The building blocks include an on-chip synthesizer covering all international RFID bands (860-960MHz), a 20dBm integrated power amplifier, oversampled data converters, on-chip data and instruction memory and a fully programmable baseband processor. The device supports Tari values of 6.25, 12.5 and 25 microseconds as well as tag link data rates of 5 to 240 kbps as defined in the ISO18000-6C standard. Due to the software defined nature of the architecture, the filtering and modem functions of the device are fully programmable, making it forward compatible for future UHF RFID standards.

The single-chip solution represents greater than 50% savings in real estate footprint -- critical to deployment in small mobile devices. Starport's single-chip solution offers a comprehensive power management scheme to extend the battery life. The SP7001 power consumption can vary from 700mW to 1.2W, depending on range. Multi-chip solutions on the market consume at least 2W in short reach mode, more than twice the power consumption of the Starport solution. The SP7001 leverages the company's CMOS hardware and software expertise to deliver superior performance, range and power management capabilities.

To facilitate the adoption of the single-chip solution in new RFID-enabled devices, Starport will provide reference designs and the associated software toolkit to lower reader implementation costs and accelerate time-to-market for its customers.

Pricing and Availability

The SP7001 Evaluation Kit is now sampling. Pricing for SP7001 starts at $50 each in quantities of 10,000 units. The SP7001 will be demonstrated in the Starport booth (#1716) at RFID WORLD, on March 26-28 in Dallas, Texas.

About Starport Systems

Starport Systems, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company providing system-on-a-chip and software solutions for mobile RFID systems. The company's mission is to enable new applications for mobile RFID by delivering the lowest-cost, lowest-power and smallest form factor solutions. Founded in 2005, Starport Systems is privately held, and is backed by Miramar Venture Partners. The company is based in Irvine, CA. For more information, visit http://www.starportsys.com/ or contact the company at (949) 502-4670.

CONTACT: Tim Helms of Helms Communications, +1-925-606-6936,
timhelms@comcast.net, for Starport Systems, Inc.

Web site: http://www.starportsys.com/