Intel Software Enables Wireless Devices To Control Personal Home Networks Remotely

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, TOKYO, April 16, 2002 - Intel Corporation researchers have released new software that allows developers to build wireless cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) that can control personal home networks with UPnP* technology from inside or outside the home.

UPnP networking technology enables personal computers and smart networked devices (such as security systems, entertainment systems, and Internet gateways) to automatically connect with one another and work together over the same network. The new software toolkit integrates UPnP technology into wireless devices, allowing them to control all of the devices on a home network, manage multimedia content throughout a home and create personal networks with other wireless devices.

"The number of mobile devices connected to the Internet is growing every day, as people require anywhere, anytime access to personal data," said Shane Wall, director of Emerging Platforms Lab, a part of Intel Labs. "With UPnP technology, users will be able to easily access important data, music, video, photos, and control home appliances via a home network and a variety of wireless devices."

Intel Labs is offering the software at no cost to developers of Pocket PC wireless client devices. It will be offered as a software development kit for the Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel PCA), a development blueprint for building wireless handheld communications devices that combine voice communications and Internet access capabilities. The toolkit and a white paper describing the technology are available on the Intel PCA Developer Network Web site: http://www.intel.com/pca/developernetwork/devsupport/index.htm.

Intel is one of the founding members of the UPnP Forum, an association of more than 340 consumer electronics, computing, home automation and security, home appliance, computer networking and other leading companies working together to develop standards that makes home networking invisible to a consumer.

For more information about the UPnP software, please visit the Intel PCA Developer Network at http://developer.intel.com/pca/developernetwork.

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