US : Extended Systems announced that VIA Telecom, Inc. has licensed the company's infrared software development kit (SDK) for use in its next-generation CDMA chipsets. VIA Telecom, a leading innovator and developer of CDMA chipsets, has licensed the technology in order to provide infrared communications capabilities to mobile handset manufacturers using the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) specification. VIA Telecom joins an increasing list of chipset manufacturers who have recently licensed Extended Systems' IrDA, Bluetooth and SyncML SDKs.

As part of the agreement, VIA Telecom also licensed Extended Systems' OBEX (Object Exchange) transport protocol, providing the ability to transport files over infrared. OBEX is the underlying protocol that enables both IrFM (Infrared Financial Messaging) and SyncML. This provides VIA Telecom customers with a clear development path to implementing IrFM or SyncML capabilities into their handsets as those applications become more widely used.

"VIA Telecom has worked with Extended Systems' embedded protocol stacks in the past, and I know, from first-hand experience, the product's excellent architecture, small code footprint, portability and reliability," said Doug Brown, product manager at VIA Telecom. "With Extended Systems' software, we can be sure that we are implementing the best-supported IrDA stack on the market and that our customers will have a superior IrDA transport on which to build applications now and in the future."

David Hofacker, business unit manager of Extended Systems' Universal Mobile Connectivity group, explained that Extended Systems has had a great deal of success with chipmakers because the company has become known in the industry as a one-stop SDK shop. "The ability to obtain multiple protocol stacks from one vendor was especially compelling for VIA Telecom during the decision-making process."

About Extended Systems' Software Development Kits

Extended Systems provides Bluetooth, IrDA and SyncML software development kits which enable hardware manufacturers to reduce development costs and shorten time-to-market. Extended Systems' SDKs offer small memory footprint, low MIPs requirements and easy portability. The company has more than 400 design wins including those with Palm, Motorola, HP, 3Com, Fujitsu, NEC, Mitsubishi, and Visteon.

About VIA Telecom, Inc.

VIA Telecom is a leading innovator and developer of Baseband Processors for 3G CDMA2000 mobile applications used in a wide range of 3G devices spanning voice, data, and GPS-enabled applications. Headquartered in San Diego, California, VIA Telecom has design centers in San Diego and Fremont, California, and Hangzhou, China, and sales offices in the US, Taiwan, China, and Korea.

About Extended Systems

Extended Systems provides the expertise, strategy and solutions to help enterprise organizations streamline their business processes through mobile technology. The company's mobile software suite enables companies to mobilize critical enterprise applications such as e-mail, field service, sales force automation (SFA), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM). In addition, the company offers Bluetooth and IrDA wireless connectivity software, as well as client/server database management systems. Extended Systems has more than 3,000 enterprise customers worldwide and key alliance relationships with Ericsson, HP, Handspring, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Sharp, Siemens, Symbian and Toshiba.