Microsoft to open radio frequency identification center

September 2, 2004

Microsoft is opening an RFID (radio frequency identification) Excellence Center in Taiwan, and the tracking of goods and assets will never be the same again. The center will work in coordination with the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in the United States and Microsoft India's engineering center and will be responsible for the integration of the resources of these three centers. Microsoft intends to invest NTD 100 million in this center in its first year of operation.

RFID tags, made of a silicon chip with an antenna that transmits data to a wireless receiver, look set to replace bar codes as the tracking system of the future. Bar codes, which have been around for the last quarter of a century, require inventory personnel to directly scan the familiar black and white stripes on the surface of the object to be tracked. However, in the case of RFID tags, we can imagine an employee sitting in the office above a warehouse or retail showroom automatically checking on the status of hundreds of items each second, limited only by the range of the receiver.

Retail giants Wal-Mart and Home Depot are investing heavily in this technology with the aim of improving supply-chain efficiency. RFID technology is so powerful it even allows the tracker to follow goods from the warehouse all the way to the buyer's home.

IBM, HP, Sun Micro, Oracle and SAP are also working on this emerging technology.

Microsoft Taiwan says that many of Taiwan's OEM and ODM companies, which make a significant share of the world's consumer IT products, have been instructed by their clients to adopt RFID technology.

Taiwan's RFID Excellence Center, which will operate under the leadership of the MTC in the US, will conduct research and testing of RFID applications in coordination with retailers, financial institutions and government agencies in Taiwan. Microsoft Taiwan says that the MTC will assist Taiwan's independent software developers and systems integration firms create NTD 3 billion in software and service business this year by developing information security testing environments for use by national defence units and the financial sector, and efficiency analysis technology for banking systems.

(Economic Daily News, Wired)

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