If the recent spate of product and vendor alliance announcements are any indication, the vendor community's push to embed second generation RFID technology throughout the supply chain is gaining momentum just as Spring takes hold. Timed to a major RFID conference in Chicago this week, vendors of all sizes and shapes announced a wide range of gear, from new Generation 2 RFID tags, firmware and printers through turnkey solutions designed to help manufacturers accelerate deployments and meet retailer and Department of Defense mandates. One reader vendor took the unprecedented step of offering a 110% money-back guarantee to help attenuate the perceived risk in committing to RFID. Among the announcements:

• Impinj Inc. announced the availability of Monza, its EPCglobal Generation 2-compliant RFID tag silicon, as part of a partnership with Intermec Technologies Corp. to promote the EPCglobal Generation 2 RFID standard.
• Alien Technology said it plans to offer EPC Class 1 Gen 2 compliant firmware in all new Alien ALR-9780 RFID readers beginning in June 2005. The firmware will also be available to upgrade existing ALR-9780 Readers.
• Blue Vector Systems and Intelleflex announced a bundled solution that integrates Intelleflex's InfoStructure semi-active tags and InfoBeam multi-protocol readers with Blue Vector's X-3000 network-based RFID infrastructure appliances for asset management applications.
• Continuing the slap and ship trend, Catalyst International, a introduced a series of kits said to enable users to quickly comply with RFID standards mandated by major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.
• Acsis, Inc., an RFID solutions provider, and ThingMagic, an RFID reader and sensor supplier announced a strategic partnership to accelerate compliance with retail and government RFID mandates and to help suppliers keep pace with trading partner requirements and technology enhancements, such as migration to the Gen 2 standard.
• Paxar Corp. unveiled a smart label performance guarantee, offering users of its Monarch Class 1 RFID labels and tags, encoded with the Monarch 9855 RFID printer/encoder, and users of Paxar's Q-Service for RFID, a 110% money-back guarantee for any labels that prove to be unreadable.
• Printronix brought out its 5r platform, which builds upon its T5000e and SL5000e series, to provide what the company says is the industry's first commercially available UHF multiprotocol radio frequency identification (RFID) printer for EPCglobal.

Tag You're It Impinj's EPCglobal Generation 2-compliant RFID tag supports all features of the Intermec's Intellitag Gen 2 technology, which is used in the latter's IF5 EPCglobal Gen 2-compatible RFID reader and RFIDeploy, a set of RFID analysis, implementation and testing services. Generation 2 RFID technology is said to offer read/write capability, improved security and read rates that are up to 10 times faster than current EPC RFID standards. It also provides up to 50 times less reader interference at close operating distances, Intermec said. Meanwhile, Alien's ALR-9780 reader with Gen 2 firmware is said to support the entire Gen 2 command set and modulation modes. For new implementations, the company is offering a Software Developer's Kit, which includes royalty-free Java and Visual Basic libraries, a hardware setup guide, reader interface guide with API definitions and sample source code. The reader can also be used in environments with mixed class 1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 tags, Alien said. The company is offering a guarantee for upgraded ALR-9780 readers for customers with EPC Class 1 Gen 2 compliant RFID tags. Easy As RFID The Intelleflex and Blue Vector bundled solution enables companies to bolt RFID data collection and management capabilities into their existing network infrastructure. In manufacturing applications, the solution can be used for storing calibration records or configuration information on Intelleflex tags as they travel with sub-assemblies. This allows manufacturers of complex machinery to use existing network infrastructure to coordinate information exchange with their manufacturing systems. Similarly, in supply chain applications, the tags can be used on loaded pallets, totes, and containers, to provide an onboard e-manifest or e-pedigree by aggregating Class 0 or Class 1 tags from the enclosed units, the companies said. "Customers are being driven to improve operational efficiencies by employing real-time visibility of WIP and product inventory in their manufacturing and supply chain operations. Product serialization data, together with associated maintenance or calibration records, needs to be remotely accessed with 100% read/write reliability in challenging industrial environments," said Intelleflex CEO, Naresh Batra, in a prepared statement. "In partnership with Blue Vector Systems, we are able to offer customers all of this in a single solution, which is compatible with industry standards." Catlyst's so-called "QuickStart" kits include bundled software, hardware and implementation services and come in three flavors.

• RFIDComply, a pre-configured solution that Catalyst claims can be installed in less than eight hours; it includes RFID device management software, a database license, a RFID reader, a RFID printer and other software, supplies and user documentation.
• RFIDConfigure, which includes the standard RFIDComply kit, plus 20 additional days of bundled services (assessment, planning, system design, transaction mapping, deployment, etc.) and up to three days of case and pallet testing.
• RFIDComplete, which includes the standard RFIDComply kit plus 45 days of bundled services, three days of case and pallet testing, and a guarantee of meeting pertinent RFID standards

Starting at $35,000, the kits are pre-configured to meet RFID compliance mandates in different markets, including Europe, and in different supply chain environments (i.e., SAP or best-of-breed). As part of their partnership, Acsis is including ThingMagic's Mercury4 RFID-reader technology in its slap and shop RFID bundle. The Mercury4 reader is based on a software-defined radio architecture that allows for fast reading of any RFID tag. Partnerships such as this will help companies tasked with customer compliance to establish a strategy to cost-effectively evolve in tandem with changing technology innovations, standards and requirements, the companies said, in a prepared statement. Increasing the urgency, standards organization EPCglobal is due to roll out its next-generation standard for RFID, UFC Generation 2 (Gen 2), around mid year, the companies pointed out. Risk Reduction Paxar's money-back guarantee, meanwhile, is aimed at attenuating fears over the high failure rate of chips in the labels and antennas. The company is betting three rounds of tests on its smart labels (discarding chips that fail or exhibit low performance characteristics) will yield products that achieve 100% read rates upon delivery. Last but not least, Printronix's new 5r printer architecture is based on a 32-bit PowerPC, and comes standard with 32MB DRAM and 8MB flash. It is said to be the first printer capable of supporting multiple printer languages developed for Zebra, SATO, Intermec and TEC printers, as well as Printronix PGL. Users can select the printer language and seamlessly integrate their Printronix printer into legacy systems. The printer family employs is compatible with EPCglobal Gen 2 (upgradeable via free firmware updates) and works with a range of applications requiring EPCglobal Class 0, 0+, 1 and Philips 1.19 standards. Field kits are available to allow for global frequency changes.