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Look, America, No Wires!

C haracterized by high quality, stylish design and excellent ergonomics, the entire range of the PiccoLink wireless handheld terminals has finally come to the American ISO community.

Nordic ID, one of the leading wireless wizards from "Silicon Valley on Ice" (otherwise known as Finland) has teamed up with PC-POS, a global distributor of point-of-sale solutions, to distribute and channel supply Nordic's wireless terminals throughout the United States.

The PiccoLink product line includes the RF600 and the PL2000. With an integrated laser scanner and multichannel operational capabilities, the RF600 is part of a unique wireless data-collection system consisting of radio handsets that communicate with the host system via base stations using efficient communication protocol.

The host system can be used as a PC or a more complex computer system. The base station (or several base stations) can be connected to the host using an RS232 serial interface or with a LAN using an Ethernet-serial converter.

The Piccolink RF600 has a line-of-sight range of around 700 meters, exceeding many other similar products in the market. It offers high quality integration with existing applications. The application software is run by the host system. The handheld appears to it like a wireless keyboard/display/scanner, thus eliminating the need for programming the handheld units.

Since the RF600 was designed by users for users - it's light, balanced and easy to operate with one hand. New features include an option RFID reader for the handheld terminal and a new variant of the RF600 Base State that allows it to be used as a Sub-Station Modem (SSM). The SSM allows "dumb" serial devices, such as weighing scales and portable printers, to be connected without wires to the solution environment.

The PiccoLink 2000 Windows CE 3.0 Handheld POS, or PL2000, combines the attributes of a batch handheld terminal with those of a radio terminal, giving the retailer 32-bit Intel StrongARM RISC processor and a minimum of 32MB of on-board memory.

The hardware is supported by Windows CE 3.1 for standard batch applications and makes use of Microsoft Explorer for Web-based solutions.

The 30-key, user-friendly keyboard allows a one-handed operation of all Windows functions. An integrated laser scanner is standard with an option to include an RFID reader. A user-accessible, full-size PC-card Type II slot can be used for radio cards and flash memory. Even with a radio card, the PL2000 battery life is in excess of eight hours.

With optional wake-up on touch, optional alert mode for loud background noise environments, low learning curve, fast navigation and synchronization as well as easy modificational capabilities, it's likely the PL2000 might have a future here in the U.S.

For details on how to go wireless with Nordic, visit www.nordicid.com.