HERNDON, Va., Dec. 16, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has developed a new technology to help companies achieve radio frequency identification (RFID)-compliance to meet customer needs. The Illuminos(tm) software development toolkit allows the user's RFID solution to interact with the numerous RFID hardware vendors' readers and printers.
Radio frequency identification is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify objects. The most common method is to store a serial number that provides the identification, and perhaps other information, on a microchip that is attached to an antenna, which enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a reader. Radio frequency identification has numerous uses, such as tracking goods in the global supply chain or monitoring tollbooth traffic.
Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector provides multiple options for using Illuminos. The product is available as an independent software development kit for automatic information systems developers. Northrop Grumman integration services are also available to IT and supply-chain managers for passive RFID integration. In addition, Northrop Grumman will license its electronic product code coder/decoder to vendors to integrate the latest electronic product code data standards into their electronic product code-compliant firmware.
"The application of RFID technology is moving rapidly into the marketplace with a good return on investment to its users," said Mark Jendzejec, vice president, Mission Support Systems, Northrop Grumman IT. "From government to industry, the next big market leap is a convergence of disparate technologies. Illuminos will help integrate the various RFID systems currently in use."
Illuminos will help reduce the software development time for developers implementing designs for electronic product code compliant readers and data structures, and at the same time, minimize product integration complexity. The product also eliminates multiple interfaces for multiple RFID vendors' hardware, and provides a rapid implementation path for electronic product code and unique identification compliance. Illuminos supports Alien, Matrics and Intermec hardware.
Northrop Grumman has been a major systems integrator of automatic identification technology, including RFID solutions, for nearly 20 years.
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, headquartered in Herndon, Va., is a trusted IT leader and premier provider of advanced IT solutions, engineering and business services for government and commercial clients. The company's technological leadership spans such areas as homeland security solutions, secure wireless, cyber and physical assurance, IT and network infrastructure, managed services, knowledge management, modeling and simulation, and geospatial intelligence solutions.
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