ACADEMIA

Sun Microsystems today announced that it has combined its RFID Test Center with the Sun Advanced Product Testing (APT) environmental test laboratory to meet the growing demands of customers to test multi-vendor RFID and sensor solutions for the ability to withstand extreme, "real-world" environmental conditions. Companies from around the world have used the Sun RFID Test Center to simulate thousands of RFID and sensor deployments to verify that multi-vendor solutions are interoperable and meet industry technical standards and mandates. Sun is reorganizing the RFID Test Center into its Colorado-based Sun APT lab to add the ability to test RFID and sensor solutions under adverse environmental conditions such as excessive heat and cold, shock, humidity, vibration, altitude and pressure. The new facility is called the Sun Advanced Product Testing Lab for RFID and Sensors. "Our previous RFID Test Center has been extremely successful helping customers take their first steps toward implementing comprehensive RFID solutions that are interoperable and meet industry standards and mandates," said Jim Del Rossi, RFID facility director, Sun Microsystems. "Combining our RFID Test Center with Sun's premier APT environmental test lab lets our customers take that next step? to conduct real-world, industrial-strength tests to verify whether RFID solutions can withstand the harsh field environments found in military, shipping, aerospace, medical and other settings." Sun's new APT Lab for RFID and Sensors will be collocated with Sun's existing APT facility in Longmont, Colo., with additional operations in Sun's nearby Louisville campus in suburban Denver. The facility, which will begin operations immediately, is the world's first to combine "industrial-strength" environmental stress testing with comprehensive interoperability and standards-compliance testing. More information about Sun RFID solutions and the Sun APT Lab for RFID and Sensors is available at its Web site. "We have utilized the extensive testing facilities of APT for Coors products since 1991 and the premier services of the Sun RFID Test Center since 2004," said Ray Toms, senior packaging manager at Coors Brewing Company. "We look forward to the integration of these test functions for enhanced future testing."