SOFTWARE TOOLS - People Power announces SuRF Developer's Kit for home area networks

Palo Alto, Calif. - People Power Company has announced the SuRF (Sensor Ultra Radio Frequency) Developer's Kit for OSHAN (Open Source Home Area Network). The kit is designed to ease development of smart, environmentally friendly applications for household electronics and devices.

SuRF's open source operating system and network stack are based on TinyOS. The kit provides developers with access to a long-range, low-power technology platform and the ability to engage with the diverse OSHAN development community.

"The Smart Grid is ushering in a tidal wave of opportunity for developers to create a new Internet of Smart Devices," said Gene Wang, founder and CEO of People Power Company. "SuRF provides a perfect platform to build these new communicating devices with more than double the range at half the power."

Because SuRF technology is built on open source, any developer can see how specific applications will work before they are completed versus having to engage with a vendor simply to view specifications. These differentiators help drive down development costs while helping developers overcome many of the challenges and barriers-to-entry typically associated with other vendor solutions.

SuRF's ultra-low power consumption reduces cost and minimizes the physical footprint of development projects, and the SoC design allows for greater range and reliability.

Embedded Unit Testing (TUnit) enables in-system unit testing for accelerated development and prototyping while improving quality and reliability of products. This reduces time-to-market and drives down costs for creating commercial applications.

People Power Company develops devices communicating wirelessly through OSHAN and connects appliances and fixtures to a robust web-based portal so that consumers can track usage for each appliance in real time. The company estimates that by producing just 20 percent energy savings for US households, consumers would save over $32 billion a year and carbon emissions would be reduced by 187 mega tons—equivalent to taking 40 million cars off the road for one year.

People Power is also conducting a competition for any developer who builds the most compelling SuRF device by September 15, 2010. The People Power Technical Advisory Board will select the winner, who will receive 5,000 shares of People Power stock, $5,000, and a free SuRF board. To find out more, or submit your device for consideration, visit www.peoplepowerco.com/contest.

SuRF can be pre-ordered starting today at www.peoplepowerco.com and will begin shipping in April, 2010. SuRF costs $149.95 for an individual kit containing two SuRF boards.