Innovision Research & Technology PLC

Web Site : http://www.innovision-group.com

Major News/Events :

Japan Engagement News July 2007

LTFA -- May 2007

New Engagement -- March 2007


Innovision R&T delivers innovative and market leading ICs for wireless connectivity solutions. The primary focus is on short-range data communication from one device to another, passive and/or active, with a special emphasis on Near Field Communications (NFC) and RFID solutions.

As a leading fabless custom RF IC design and systems provider they offer a complete engineering capability to our clients, including research engineering, custom IC design and production, and system design engineering.

Shares in Issue : 76m

Email : info@innovision-group.com

5

The last two pieces of news have really caught my eye, and got my interest.

Innovision Research&Technology PLC
16 May 2007
Innovision Research & Technology Plc
('Innovision' or the 'Company')

Long Term Framework Agreement and First Design

Following the initial collaboration announced on 29 March 2007, the Company is
pleased to confirm that it has now entered into a long-term framework agreement
with the same leading international semiconductor company. This exciting
development represents a further endorsement of Innovision's leading-edge IP and
technology platform for the emerging Near Field Communications ('NFC') market.

The agreement relates to the design of a series of Integrated Circuits in the
NFC market over the next three years with a guaranteed minimum level of business
amounting to several million pounds.

In addition, the Company is delighted to announce that the initial project
meeting for the first IC design to be undertaken within this framework has taken
place and development work will start immediately. This initial design is by
itself anticipated to attract license fees, development funding and royalties
based on product shipments over the next few years in excess of a million
pounds.

And then today :

Innovision Research&Technology PLC
26 July 2007

Innovision Research & Technology Plc

New Engagement

Innovision Research & Technology plc ('Innovision') is pleased to announce it
has entered into an engagement with a major Japanese electronics corporation
related to contactless semiconductor devices. The initial contract is expected
to lead later this year to a longer term development agreement for the
integration of Innovision's NFC and RFID intellectual property into a significant number of contactless products.

Enquiries arising from this announcement should be directed to:

Innovision Research & Technology plc 01285 888200
David Wollen, Chief Executive Officer

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd 0207 418 8900
David Anderson
Oliver Scott

http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=108113


RF tags will help visually-impaired to shop
by Steve Bush
Wednesday 23 May 2007

An RFID wireless tag with embedded memory from Cirencester-based Innovision Research and Technology has been used in a system to help visually-impaired people when buying items in shops.

The system, which is called Seeingeyephone, uses near-field communications (NFC), the RFID tag reader and tag emulation technology to allow handhelds, predominantly mobile phones, to connect to and interact with tagged objects and tag readers by magnetic coupling.

Seeingeyephone is aimed at customers unable to read product information in shops.

A Topaz RFID tag containing an ID, address and product-specific data such as the price, use-by date and nutritional values, is attached to the shelf next to each product.

When the customer holds an NFC-enabled handset to the tag, the text-based information is retrieved, and the phones text-to-speech synthesiser feeds the information to the user in his or her chosen language.

We were inspired not only by the creativity and practicality of some of the applications on display, but excited by the very positive response we got to our Topaz tag, said Marc Borrett, business development Director at Innovision.

At least one chip firm, NXP Semiconductors, believes NFC will become a standard technology included in every mobile phone.

Developed by the Technical Research Centre of Finland, the project recently won Most Innovative NFC Proposal of the Year at the Wireless Information Multimedia Applications 2007 event in Monaco.

http://www.morerfid.com/details.php?subdetail=Report&action=details&report_id=2906

Innovision publishes highly anticipated third White Paper: 'NFC in the real world - Moving to System on Chip Integration' at WIMA 2007

Innovision Research & Technology plc [04/20/07]


Widespread adoption of Near Field Communications (NFC) is dependent on simple, low-cost integration of the technology into a wide range of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, point of sale and ticketing machines.

According to Innovision Research & Technology, creators of Topaz for NFC, the most effective way to integrate NFC into mass-market electronics devices is through System on Chip (SoC) implementation in other common chipsets, for instance Bluetooth, WiFi and Ultra Wide Band.

The business case for SoC implementations, highlighting the technical and commercial advantages, is outlined in Innovision's White Paper, 'NFC in the real world - Moving to System on Chip Integration', published and presented today by Heikki Huomo, CTO of Innovision R&T at WIMA 2007 in Monaco.

'NFC in the real world - Moving to System on Chip Integration'

Innovision's White Paper - the third in a series of authoritative papers on NFC - examines the issues facing electronic product designers and manufacturers today, particularly how, when and where NFC can be integrated into new products.

"When to integrate NFC with other technologies is a key consideration, especially at this early adoption stage," according to Innovision Technical Director, Heikki Huomo, speaking at this week's event.

"Integrate too late and you could be left behind in the race to meet volume demand from a mass market cost -effectively, but time it right and you will see significant cost and commercial benefits in high volume production. "

In the paper, Innovision discusses how NFC is currently going through the classic integration cycle, with initial prototype implementations in mobile phones developed as cover units clipped on the back of the phone. Cumbersome and expensive, they were never going to take off as mass consumer products. Now, as NFC moves to the next level of integration, product designers have the choice of developing NFC chipsets to sit on electronic device motherboards, or moving to SoC implementations.

The attractions of SoC


Financial - SoC implementations of NFC make sound financial sense. The cost of including a standalone NFC chipset on a typical motherboard can be as much as $3-5 per unit. Implementing the same NFC functionality as a custom IP block on a Bluetooth chipset, for example, adds less than $1 per unit, which comes down even further in high volume production.


Motherboard 'real estate' - around 99% of silicon is now digital, which provides little room to build additional processes like NFC on it. Since NFC needs a certain amount of analogue circuitry for transmitting and receiving analogue radio waves, there are obvious advantages for combined digital/analogue chipsets - such as Bluetooth, WiFi and UWB - in mobiles, PDAs, etc, to play host to NFC. The NFC IP block can be placed easily in a corner of the Bluetooth chipset.


Technical advantages - integrating NFC with Bluetooth, WiFi or UWB chipsets makes sense technically, as many of the processes and components needed by RF technologies, such as antenna, power and data bus, are the same.

With one of the fastest growing dedicated NFC engineering design teams in the industry and detailed knowledge and experience of NFC SoC requirements, Innovision Research & Technology is already using its unique design process capabilities to work with a number of major clients to provide custom NFC IC design.

About Innovision Research & Technology plc

Innovision Research & Technology plc, is a leading NFC/RFID IC Design and solutions provider. At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, designing and developing solutions for the mobile handset and consumer device sectors the company also focuses on RFID and ultra low-cost Integrated Circuit (IC) and electronic design.

Innovision R&T develops innovative technologies and technology applications for commercialisation and then licenses the technology on to its customers who incorporate it into their own products. The company's work with customers includes pre-engineering studies, building of prototypes and complete product development through to production, including full custom silicon chip design.

Innovision R&T products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and "io", the world's smallest standards compatible near field RFID reader.

http://www.morerfid.com/details.php?subdetail=Report&action=details&report_id=3022

Innovision's Topaz winner's choice at European NFC Competition

Innovision Research & Technology plc

[05/17/07]

Topaz, designed and developed by British firm, Innovision Research & Technology, was used by the overall winner of Track B - 'Most Innovative NFC Proposal of the Year 2007' - at the first European NFC Competition held last month as part of the NFC Developers Summit at the Wireless Information Multimedia Applications (WIMA) 2007 event in Monaco.

Topaz, mandated last year by the NFC Forum as the Type 1 NFC tag, proved to be a popular choice at the NFC Competition and was the tag of choice for the Track B winners, the 'Seeingeyephone', an innovative use of NFC by the Technical Research Center of Finland, VTT.

The project is aimed at visually impaired customers who are unable to read product information in shops. The Topaz tag containing an ID and address with product-specific data, such as the price, use-by date and nutritional values, is simply attached to the shelf next to each product. When the customer holds an NFC-enabled phone up to the tag, the text-based information is retrieved and the phone's text-to-speech synthesiser feeds the information directly to the user in their chosen language.

Innovision's Topaz tag, popular among NFC developers for it's memory size, low-cost capabilities and flexibility across a wide range of NFC applications, was used by many of the NFC Competition's 21 finalists, including France's MIS MDBS for its HOTELNOVA and the Institute of Electronic Business from the University of Arts in Berlin for its Mobile Sales Assistant (MSA) for retailers application.

"The NFC Competition is all about promoting innovation and excellence in NFC service implementations, both now and for the future," said Marc Borrett, Business Development Director at Innovision Research & Technology. "We were inspired not only by the creativity and practicality of some of the applications on display, but excited by the very positive response we got to our Topaz tag and the fact that it was used by the Track B winner and many of the finalists."

About Innovision Research & Technology plc

Innovision Research & Technology plc, is a leading NFC/RFID IC Design and solutions provider. At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, designing and developing solutions for the mobile handset and consumer device sectors the company also focuses on RFID and ultra low-cost Integrated Circuit (IC) and electronic design.

Innovision R&T develops innovative technologies and technology applications for commercialisation and then licenses the technology on to its customers who incorporate it into their own products. The company's work with customers includes pre-engineering studies, building of prototypes and complete product development through to production, including full custom silicon chip design.

Innovision R&T products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and "io", the world's smallest standards compatible near field RFID reader.

Headquartered in the UK , the company was established in 1994 and is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: INN ).

For an overview of Innovision, NFC and Topaz, visit: www.innovision-group.com

From May 2007 :

http://www.uitp.org/helsinki2007/exhibition/pr/Smart%20ticketing%20white%20paper%20-%20press%20release%20-%20UITPA.pdf

Smart ticketing White Paper from Innovision Research & Technology highlights key passenger benefits from low-cost contactless ticketing - fast, convenient and affordable ways to travel when and where customers want UITP, Helsinki, 20-24 May 2007 Innovision Research & Technology, a leading developer of Near Field Communication (NFC) and short-range RFID solutions has launched..............................................


*******************************************

http://www.uitp.org/helsinki2007/exhibition/pr/NFC%20White%20Paper%20-%20press%20release%20-%20FINAL%20-%20UITP1.pdf

Authoritative White Paper on Near Field Communication launched
by Innovision Research & Technology NFC in the real world turning the NFC promise into profitable everyday applications
UITP, Helsinki, 20-24 May 2007 - Now that international standards have been
agreed and published for Near Field Communication (NFC) the new short-range
wireless connectivity technology the market is set for widespread adoption........................................

The specific aims of the recent placing were noted as :

"Use of proceeds
In order to maximise the current opportunities, the Company believes it needs to invest ahead of the predicted revenues and therefore requires additional cash resources as detailed below which are expected to be met by the net proceeds of the Placing:

Further investment in NFC-related IP 3 million over the next two years
Advanced, re-usable, customisable and transferable NFC-related IP developed by the Company is a key determinant in winning contracts and the Company is committed to developing its NFC IP over the next two years in order to keep it in the forefront of technological developments within this arena.
Examples of such developments include the potential incorporation of more global standards with its NFC IP, such as UHF/HF EPC functionality.

Chinese market investment 1 million 2 million over the next two years
China is seen as the largest RFID tag consumer in future. The Company is looking to co-operate with a major corporation and standards organisation or university in China to produce standards-based products derived from the Companys existing Topaz and Jewel tag technologies for the Chinese market and to exploit UHF tag market opportunities in China.

NFC IP product development 0.5 million over the next year
The Company intends to further develop and document its NFC IP into a product for sale to tier 2 and 3 customers for transfer to their in-house customisation teams.

Balance sheet strength up to 1 million
The remainder of the net funds of the Placing will be used to enhance the balance sheet of the Company. The Directors believe a stronger balance sheet will assist the Company in winning contracts with global semiconductor vendors who often require their suppliers to demonstrate financial strength
before they are prepared to contract directly with them.

For those wanting some more info on NFC ;

http://www.nfc-forum.org/aboutnfc/


.

http://www.innovision-group.com/press_view.php?newsID=104

UK Competition to find novel uses of new generation of NFC mobile phones announced
NFC Innovation Awards Launch

Friday 3rd October, 2008


UK competition to find novel uses of new generation of NFC mobile phones announced

3rd October 2007, Cirencester, UK Near Field Communication (NFC) a short-range wireless communication technology is about to change the face of mobile handset usage and mobile applications where touch is the new click. With the recent announcement of the four NFC Forum standard tag types, Innovision Research & Technology, developer of the NFC standard number 1 tag type format, Topaz, has launched the first UK-based competition, the NFC Innovation Awards, to find the most innovative NFC ideas of the future.

The competition, aimed at UK-based teams, is running in association with Electronics Weekly and requires teams of up to four participants to produce an abstract proposing a novel NFC application, and if finalists, a demonstration of the application for a Topaz tag used with a NFC-enabled mobile phone handset.

Topaz has a 96byte memory and as the smallest and lowest cost NFC tag is one of only three proprietary tag types mandated by the NFC Forum, the global standards body for NFC. It is hoped that by learning how to use an NFC-enabled phone to efficiently encode these tags, would-be developers will gain a valuable understanding of the opportunities and challenges presented by NFC technology. One interesting challenge for competition entrants is devising an efficient use of a tag memory of 96 Bytes for example, it could be used as a pointer to larger databases or specific Internet sites.

Examples of applications already developed using the Topaz tag include a variety of smart posters used for interactive timetables for transport, information and even product download whilst other use cases such as the Seeing Eye Phone from VTT, and Hotel Nova by University of Nice have used Topaz tags to provide support for the disabled and improve the travel experience of hotel visitors. It is anticipated that entrants will expand further on the creativity that these projects demonstrate. Further information on these projects is available online via What We Do on the Innovision website www.innovision-group.com

Competition entrants will each

Competition entrants will each receive a free competition kit, comprising a set of 10 Topaz NFC tags and a Topaz data sheet. Tags are available in four form factors suitable for a variety of uses:

30mm round adhesive labels
38mm x 38mm square adhesive labels
38mm x 38mm square cards
ID1 Credit card sized cards
Entrants also need to use an NFC-enabled mobile phone handset with the software development kit, available to purchase from Glue4, a software and solutions company who are supporting the competition.

NFC-enabled mobile applications are evolving rapidly and we felt now was the right time to see what creative design and development skills are out there that can take advantage of a technology that enables a new generation of mobile devices to communicate simply by touch, explains Innovision Research & Technology CEO, David Wollen.

The beauty of NFC lies in its simplicity and flexibility by integrating an NFC tag into an everyday object, individuals can simply touch an NFC-enabled device against the tag and receive relevant, specific and timely information. In effect, it makes any object smart.

The competition timing coincides with the start of the new academic year, with a deadline for entry of 9th November. A panel will then judge entries and announce the shortlist on 19th November, followed by a presentation ceremony in December in London.

Competition entrants must be able to demonstrate their project and provide an abstract explaining how the project works and how it meets each of the judgement criteria. Criteria include the projects benefit to society (social); its commercial potential; the possible beneficial effect on the lives of individuals (personal); originality (novelty); and its potential for creating an effective working environment or organisation culture (collaboration), among a number of others.

Innovisions David Wollen, adds: Its fair to say that we have some of the best engineering skills in the UK, and as a British-based company ourselves, we wanted to create a competitive environment where teams from around the country could present their ideas and come up with commercial, novel and potentially life-changing mobile applications based on NFC technology.

**********************************************

Notes for editors

An innovative use of NFC case study: The Seeingeyephone

In May, Innovision highlighted a novel prototype demonstration of its proprietary NFC tag Topaz (NFC Forum Type 1 Tag) called the Seeingeyephone, an innovative use of NFC developed by engineers from VTT at the Technical Research Center of Finland as part of a SmartTouch EU-project.

The Seeingeyephone is designed for visually impaired people who are unable to read product information in shops. The NFC tag containing an ID and address with product-specific data, such as the price, use-by date and pack size, is simply attached to the shelf next to each product. When the customer holds their NFC-enabled phone up to the tag, the text-based information is retrieved and the phones text-to-speech synthesiser feeds the information directly to the user in their chosen language.

Simple and clever, the Seeingeyephone was recognised at the recent European NFC Competition as the Most Innovative NFC Proposal of the Year 2007.

Teams can enter online via the Innovision website from today.

******************************************

About Innovision Research & Technology plc

Innovision Research & Technology plc, is leading the next generation of NFC/RFID solutions. As the leading fabless developer of Short-Range Data Communication semiconductor and system solutions, with particular focus on NFC/RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and ultra low-cost Interated Circuit (IC) and RF electronic design, IRT is pushing cost performance to enable clients to get maximum utility for minimum cost.

The company develops innovative semiconductor technologies, ICs, RF systems (HF/UHF) and complete end product applications for mass volume commercialisation and then licenses customers for its incorporation into their own products.

At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, Innovision R&T designs and develops NFC/RFID IC solutions for the global mobile handset and consumer device sectors.

Products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag type format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and io, the world's smallest standards compatible Near-Field RFID reader.

Headquartered in the UK, Innovision R&T was listed in 2001 on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol:INN).

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/27285.php

9th Novemeber 2007

Major Trial of Near-Field Payments to Start in France

Six major French banks (BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and LCL, Credit Mutuel-CIC, Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, La Banque Postale and Societe Generale) as well as four mobile operators (Bouygues Telecom, NRJ Mobile, Orange and SFR) have announced plans to join forces in cooperation with MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Europe to launch at the end of November a large-scale field trial to test mobile contactless payment with 1,000 customers and 200 sales outlets located in the cities of Caen and Strasbourg.

This new multi-operator payment service, aims at simplifying proximity payments, offering customers a fast, practical, and safe way to handle their everyday transactions. The "Payez Mobile" trial is based on a payment application embedded in the customer's SIM card and on the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology.

The field trial will serve to evaluate users' interest in this new payment solution and to test the interoperability among solutions provided by different suppliers: LG, Motorola and Sagem (mobile phones), Ingenico and Sagem Monetel (payment terminals), Gemalto and Oberthur Card Systems (SIM cards and secured application management), and Inside Contactless (NFC components).

This initiative, under the supervision of the Secure Electronic Transactions (TES) cluster of the Lower Normandy region, is also geared toward standardization within the future SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) by contributing to the emergence of a mobile contactless payment standard.

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1702074915;fp;16;fpid;1

Taiwanese to soon use mobile phones for subway, shopping

Taiwan is already trying out using mobile phones to pay for subway rides, and merchandise will be added soon.

Dan Nystedt (IDG News Service) 05 November, 2007 11:43:36

A trial group of Taiwanese citizens are already using their mobile phones to pay for subway rides using a contactless payment system, and they will soon start testing handsets with credit and cash cards on board.

The subway system in Taipei already accepts contactless payment cards for all rides, but using mobile phones to make such payments is new.

The technology for the payments is built right into the SIM (subscriber identity module) cards inside the handsets, said Chiang Yen-hsu, a researcher on Chunghwa Telecom\'s ETC&IC card project.

The subway payment trial has already started, and a shopping trial will begin soon, he said.

In September, credit card company Visa announced a six-month public trial of a contactless payment system on mobile phones in Taiwan.

A total of 500 Chunghwa Telecom subscribers will use NFC (near field communication) equipped Nokia 6131i handsets to make contactless payments at 3000 stores that already accept Visa payWave contactless cards in Taiwan.

Taiwan was chosen because 1.4 million people here already use contactless payment Visa cards, the company said.

As part of the trial, advertisements and coupons will be sent to handsets over the airwaves. Users passing by posters or other media embedded with NFC tags in popular shopping areas will receive specific offers, including movie, restaurant and bar discounts.

For smart phones, RFID (radio frequency identification) or NFC tags will be used in the future to send signals connecting them to Web sites designed for small screen sizes and that contain useful information, such as movie times, bus, subway, train, airplane schedules, and more.

\"If you\'re waiting for a bus, then an RFID signal installed at the bus stop could let you know exactly where your bus is and when it will arrive,\" said Chiang.

Chunghwa Telecom is Taiwan\'s largest mobile phone operator by subscribers.

************************************************************

http://www.accountancyagejobs.com/vnunet/news/2202603/pay-mobile-hit-5bn-2011

Mobile payments to ring up $11bn by 2011

Analyst predicts 52 million consumers paying for goods via mobile technology

Ian Williams, vnunet.com, 01 Nov 2007

Around 52 million consumers will adopt new mobile technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) and other physical mobile payment methods to pay for everyday goods and services by 2011, analysts predict.

A recent study from Juniper Research suggests that mobile payments will hit $11.5bn by 2011.

This research follows a similar report in July which foresees mobile payments generating $22bn by 2011, driven primarily by SMS-based person-to-person fund transfers and payments.

Juniper reckons that NFC and other physical mobile payments methods will begin to offer consumers a viable alternative to cash, credit and debit cards.

Alan Goode, a senior analyst at Juniper, told vnunet.com that the major drivers of physical mobile payments will be convenience and enhanced functionality.

\"Convenience in terms of you never leave home without your mobile phone, and enhanced functionality in terms of the value-added services it can bring,\" he said.

\"For instance, I can check my credit card balance via the phone before paying for goods at a physical point of sale, and use a mobile barcode coupon to redeem a special offer at the same time.\"

Juniper predicted that around 12 per cent of mobile phones will offer support for some form of contactless payment by 2011, most probably NFC.

This equates to nearly 470 million NFC-enabled handsets worldwide, which should provide a significant marketplace for retailers to offer goods via mobile payment applications.

The study found that varying mobile payment applications and services are already available in most regions in a variety of formats where they are being adopted in either trial or commercial modes with favourable user feedback.

Although there are some security concerns regarding these forms of payment, Goode explained that banks will not allow physical payment on a phone if the security does not meet certain standards.

He added that mobile phone theft is an issue, but that with the correct procedures in place by the mobile operators and the payment scheme providers the concern should be \"no more than losing a plastic payment card\".

Industry players including retailers, handset vendors and the financial community in the Far East and the US are seen as particularly receptive to the idea of using RFID or NFC to facilitate mobile payments for physical goods and services.

\"The evidence is that people generally spend more when using a physical mobile phone payment method. Data from Japan sees an increase in the retail basket size in comparison to other payment methods such as card and cash,\" said Goode.

The report concluded that all members of the mobile payments value chain must develop a mutually satisfactory and robust business model to guarantee revenue to all parties.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2007/11/14/42626/nfc+chip+ip+will+open+mass+market+says+innovision.htm

NFC chip IP will open mass market, says Innovision
by Richard Wilson

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Near field communication (NFC) semiconductor intellectual property (IP) developed by Innovision Research & Technology is to be made available under an evaluation licensing programme.

According to the company, the availability of the NFC silicon IP will clear the way for semiconductor companies to move to the next stage of NFC integration in chipsets and devices.

It will deliver significant unit cost benefits to implementers of NFC technology, and accelerate mass-market deployment of NFC, said Innovision.

As NFC enters the next phase of volume deployment, manufacturers of handsets and other devices will require a competitive supply base to maintain innovation and reduce the cost of NFC technology, said Marc Borrett, Innovisions business development director.

Making our advanced Gem IP available for evaluation now is a key step in realising this vision, said Borrett.

The Gem IP is compliant with NFC standards and includes support for features such as battery off.

The intention is to offer the IP under an evaluation licence, with forthcoming test silicon. This will allow companies to create demonstration systems to show to end-customers.

*************************************

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/303084/Innovision+license+NFC.htm

Innovision license NFC
Published: 15 November 2007 11:40 AM
Source: The Engineer Online

Innovision Research and Technology is releasing its Gem Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductor intellectual property (IP) under an evaluation licensing programme.

According to Innovision the move is designed to open up NFC short-range wireless technology to the mass market and will allow companies to develop the technology as a stand-alone system or integrated in a System-on-Chip (SoC).

As NFC enters the next phase of volume deployment, manufacturers of handsets and other devices will require a competitive supply base to maintain innovation and reduce the cost of NFC technology, said Marc Borrett, Innovisions business development officer. Making our advanced Gem IP available for evaluation now is a key step in realising this vision. It will help many device and chipset designers to meet the growing demand for high-performance, lower-cost NFC-enabled devices and applications.

Innovision claim that, for the first time, developers will be able to create high-performance SoC designs that fully integrate NFC into other complementary technologies, including WiFi and other wireless or power chipsets. The benefits of this include a reduction in the complexity and production costs of NFC-enabled devices.

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http://www.embedded.com/products/softwaretools/203101111

Innovision offers NFC technology as IP as expected
By Peter Clarke

EE Times Europe
(11/15/07, 12:10:00 PM EST)

LONDON Innovision Research & Technology plc, supplier of radio frequency identification (RFID) and near field communication (NFC) chips has started an intellectual property evaluation and licensing program for its NFC technology called Gem.

Innovision (Cirecester, England) said the program would enable semiconductor companies to develop NFC capability, either for stand-alone solutions or as part of System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated NFC solutions.

It has been known for some time that Innovision intended to do this. Indeed Innovision may have been supplying semiconductor companies with NFC IP for some time. The IP is compliant with NFC standards, Innovision said.

Innovision's Gem IP will be offered to interested parties under an evaluation licence, with forthcoming test silicon. This will not only enable detailed evaluation of the NFC IP, but also enable the creation of demonstration systems to show to end-customers.

A claimed benefit of the Gem IP is its relative ease of transfer from one silicon foundry process or geometry to another, due primarily to the use of DSP.

RNS today:

Innovision Research&Technology PLC
05 December 2007

Innovision is pleased to announce that it was the provide of NFC tags for the
major launch of the O2 wallet phone, which finished yesterday in London. As part
of the launch, 15,000 Innovision Topaz tags were supplied to 500 London trial
lists selected by O2. Each trial list received a Nokia NFC handset, several
Topaz tags and 200 credited to a Barclaycard Visa/Oyster card application
integrated on the phone. The tags were also used for promotional purposes in
Smart posters at the launch event. The trial will last for six months.

David Wollen, Chief Executive commented 'We see this is an important step in the
adoption of NFC technology within mainstream applications. Based on the
investments to date, Innovision is well placed to provide technology in this
area.'

sp up 9.26% to: 29-30p

At last a technology company that is delivering!

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