RFID Systems

Asset Tracking

Contactless Payments

Secure ID

Customer Support

Document Center

News

Tools & Software

News Releases

Near Field Communication Forum Announces World-Class Members Lineup, Charts Course For 2005

Wakefield, MA (February 24, 2005)

The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum, a non-profit industry association launched in 2004 by Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation to promote NFC technology, today announced that 18 more organizations from around the world have joined the group.

The NFC Forum is a global standards development and advocacy group dedicated to advancing near field communication technology, educating the public about its benefits, and furthering its implementation around the world.

MasterCard International, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Motorola, NEC, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Visa International have become Sponsor Members, receiving seats on the Forum's Board of Directors. As a group, the Sponsor Members will represent the leading players in key industries in all the major regions of the world.

Additional organizations that have joined the NFC Forum in other membership categories include 3ALogics Inc., CETECOM Spain, Gemplus, Giesecke & Devrient, JCB Co. Ltd., Logitech, MeT Ltd., Mobey Forum, SKIDATA AG, and Smart System Technologies, Inc.

"The strong interest the Forum has received from key players in the industry is a clear endorsement of our goals and a predictor of energetic Forum activities," said Christophe Duverne, Chairman of the NFC Forum. "We invite additional companies from all relevant sectors — mobile communications, consumer electronics, chip manufacturing, computing, media and entertainment, telecom and payment services — to join the NFC Forum and help work toward our goal of enabling consumers to connect to other devices and services in an intuitive and convenient way."

In addition to assembling its world-class membership roster, the Forum has set up working groups and identified areas of technology for specification. To address the growing interest that hundreds of organizations have expressed in the NFC Forum, an informational session will be held at the CTIA Wireless 2005 conference in New Orleans, March 14-16. The first NFC Forum Members Meeting will take place in New York City, March 17-18.

NFC technology for short-range wireless connectivity will allow users to access content and services, transact payments and store tickets on their smart phones, PDAs and other consumer electronics by just holding NFC-enabled devices next to each other.

About Texas Instruments RFid Systems

Updated May 2006 Texas Instruments is the world’s largest integrated manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and reader systems. Capitalizing on its competencies in high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics packaging, TI is a visionary leader and at the forefront of establishing new markets and international standards for RFID applications. For more information, contact TI-RFid™ Systems at 1-800-962-7343 (North America) or +1 214-567-7343 (International), or visit the Web site at www.ti-rfid.com.

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers’ real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company includes the Educational & Productivity Solutions business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com.

About NFC Technology

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters. NFC technology is standardized in ISO 18092, ISO 21481, ECMA (340, 352 and 356), and ETSI TS 102 190. NFC is also compatible with the broadly established contactless smart card markets based on ISO 14443, Philips MIFARE® technology and Sony's FeliCa™ card.

About the NFC Forum

The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum will promote implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services. Founded by three innovative technology companies - Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation - in 2004, the Forum's objective is to foster the use of NFC short-range wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. For more information, visit www.nfc-forum.org call NFC membership services at +1 781-876-8955, or send a message to .