The IPSO Alliance ( www.ipso-alliance.org), an international non-profit group advancing greater awareness for Internet Protocol-connected smart objects, announced on July 9 that it has added 12 new companies to its members’ roster, including several well-known technology and manufacturing brands.

The new member organizations include such familiar names as Intel, Bosch and Johnson Controls, along with more specialized tech and wireless firms CEA, Convergence Wireless, ECE, Ember Corp., IAR Systems, Ibit World, INRIA, Maxfor, National Semiconductor, Somfy, Tridium and ZeroG Wireless rounding out the latest group of companies to join the organization.

These new members bring IPSO’s corporate membership to 51, joining some of the best-known names in global technology, including Cisco, Ericsson, SAP, Sun Microsystems, and Texas Instruments. The companies have come together to raise awareness of the use of established Internet Protocols in creating linked networks of physical objects—from household appliances to sophisticated communications devices, factory devices and even military systems.

Billions of devices

“Intel believes the IPSO Alliance will be an integral group to enable the interoperability and connectivity of devices for the embedded Internet,” said Tony Neal-Graves, general manager, strategic planning, Embedded and Communications Group, Intel. “Intel Architecture has played a central role in the build-out of the Internet and we are committed to delivering products and technology that will enable billions of embedded, connected devices.”

“There is a need for an open, informal and thought-leading association of like-minded organizations and individuals to promote the value of using the Internet Protocol for the networking of smart objects. Bosch is convinced that standards for embedded IP will foster an open systems approach and achieve high interoperability levels which are crucial,” noted Harald Hoenninger, vice president, corporate research, at Bosch. “The IPSO Alliance seems to be the perfect forum to promote such a standard. As members, we plan to contribute to the Alliance and take a role in the existing and evolving business ecosystems of Embedded IT.”

The alliance was created last September and has quickly gained traction as an international advocate for networked devices and synchronicity of physical objects. “Time” magazine marked the formation of the alliance as one of the best inventions of 2008, noting, “The organization intends to create a new kind of network that will allow sensor-enabled physical objects—appliances in your home, products in a factory, cars in a city—to talk to one another, the same way people communicate over the Internet.”

A so-called “smart object” is any device that combines processing power, communications capabilities and a power source to provide real-time information to a computer system. Integration of the Internet Protocol, which allows the Internet to run smoothly, in turn allows smart objects to communicate directly with one another over the existing global network following a proven protocol that has been in place for nearly 35 years. The IP framework additionally provides unsurpassed scalability, a vital feature for large organizations.

IPSO Alliance
www.ipso-alliance.org

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