))) Texas Instruments RFID Systems, BiStar Technologies and SCS Corporation Endorse UCC/EAN GTAG Initiative

))) DALLAS, TX (May 30, 2001)

Texas Instruments RFID Systems, BiStar Technologies and SCS Corporation today announced their endorsement of the UCC/EAN GTAG initiative as well as their commitment to bring solutions to market to meet the needs of the supply chain and logistics user communities.  The three companies support the UCC/EAN initiated GTAG process, recognizing the need for a worldwide RFID solution suitable for a broad range of logistics applications.

The UCC and EAN organizations have committed their considerable resources and prestige to bringing a standard to bear which will provide users and technology providers alike the confidence to commit to implementing long-range, passive RFID solutions.  The leadership of this user forum has resulted in a focused set of performance requirements around which the design of a minimum protocol and performance requirements (MP&PR) can be accomplished.  In the absence of this effort, the normal standards process could well result in a protracted standards schedule that would not provide today’s users with a clear path to reconciling existing North American UHF solutions with the requirements of international commerce. TI-RFid™, BiStar and SCS support the UCC and EAN in their effort to define a viable and robust MP&PR.

“We have confidence that the UCC will quickly bring GTAG to a definitive and commercially viable conclusion.  This short period during which the GTAG document is being refined has given us the opportunity to review our development cycles, and we are confident we can collaborate to adapt chips, currently in late-stage development, to make them GTAG-compliant and have tags in the market in less than nine months,” concurred Jack LeVan and Johan Kruger, presidents of SCS Corporation and BiStar Technologies, respectively.  “In other words, we expect the GTAG specification to be set in June and both of us to have compliant tags in the market before the second quarter of 2002.”

The three companies believe the GTAG standard is a significant step forward in unlocking the potential of the RFID market and look forward to supporting users who want to implement systems that will improve both the speed and productivity of their logistics processes.”