San Jose, CA, September 4, 2007 - Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) and MeshNetics, a leading ZigBee® technology provider, today announced they have signed an agreement. Under the new agreement, MeshNetics eZeeNet ZigBee networking stack software – already part of MeshNetics’ own ZigBit IEEE802.15.4™/ZigBee modules and development kits – will now be bundled with Atmel’s AVR® Z-Link® chipsets, accessory and demonstration kits at no extra cost to the users. MeshNetics eZeeNet ZigBee stack and software development tools can now be downloaded at Atmel’s website.

AVR Z-Link program was initiated to bring complete Atmel hardware-based system solutions to the fast growing and diversified IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee market where AVR has already established itself as one of the most recognized low power microcontrollers. With its efficient core and excellent peripherals, it is the perfect match for wireless applications. Customers who seek to realize Atmel’s hardware significant benefits need software tailored to their needs. This is where agreements, such as the new Atmel/MeshNetics union, are extremely advantageous. By tapping into the other party’s expertise, this approach allows faster, less costly time-to-market for the clients.

“Working together with Atmel is an important step for us. Atmel is a world leader in advanced semiconductors with a clear vision for the growing IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee market,” said Mr. Vasiliy Suvorov, CEO of MeshNetics. “Success of a ZigBee solution development largely depends on the right combination of hardware and software. Atmel’s best-of-breed hardware combined with MeshNetics’ expertise in software and reference design creates a winning proposition for AVR developers. Our latest free ZigBee software tools will help bring new ZigBee-ready products to the market faster and cut development costs at the same time.”

MeshNetics brings years of experience in firmware, module design, and wireless sensor networking software. MeshNetics has advanced expertise in developing wireless sensor data integration solutions for building monitoring, HVAC control, plant safety and equipment monitoring. Industry’s smallest ZigBit IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee modules are based on the AVR Z-Link hardware platform and offer a superior line-of-site unamplified range of over 1,000m. The robust mesh networking eZeeNet software and sample applications, included in the Development Kit, provide all the tools needed to develop reliable, cost-effective ZigBee solutions.

“As a result of the agreement with MeshNetics, we are now able to offer a complete development environment for wireless sensor networks ranging from state-of-the art chipsets and modules, via affordable development kits and tools, to a free ZigBee stack,” said Magnus Pedersen, Atmel’s Director of AVR RF Marketing. “Free software to support ZigBit modules from MeshNetics as well as AVR Z-Link chipsets from Atmel, gives our customers a flying start en-route to certifiable ZigBee products, and significantly reduces the efforts to get final products into volume production.”

Atmel’s AVR Z-Link hardware platform includes the popular low-power ATmega1281, AVR 8-bit Flash microcontroller and the latest Atmel AT86RF230 radio transceiver that boasts -101dBm of Rx sensitivity and up to +3dBm of Tx power. This combination is known as the "link budget." Range of operation is a logarithmic function of link budget, so a difference of only 9 dBm nearly triples the range. Thanks to the outperforming link budget, the range of AT86RF230 is almost 3 times that of any other 2.4GHz 802.15.4 radio on the market today.

The ATAVRRZ502 RF Accessory Kit and ATAVRRZ200 Demonstration Kit enable development, debugging and demonstration on IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee networks. However, MeshNetics eZeeNet, a robust IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee software stack, enables Atmel’s RCB boards to perform as nodes in a self-healing, self-organizing mesh network. MeshNetics’ eZeeNet WSN demo software, supplied in source code, enables users to visualize live network topology and assemble custom network configurations by programming the boards with corresponding firmware images. With MeshNetics eZeeNet software, developers can also evaluate network performance, including self-healing and self-organizing features, browse hardware parameters of remote nodes, and manage nodes from an easy-to-use Graphical User Interface (GUI).

ZigBee stack and Software Development Kit are available from: http://www.atmel.com/products/avr/z-link/ or http://www.meshnetics.com/freezigbee.