The Green Home Gets Smarter: Radio Thermostat Company of America Collaborates with Marvell and chumby industries to Apply Smart Grid Technology to Homes

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- CES -- Golden Power Manufacturing through its affiliated company Radio Thermostat Company of America (RTCA), today announced it has jointly developed a new home automation platform with Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) and chumby industries to power a series of new energy efficient solutions for the emerging smart home market at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The home automation platform, based on the RTCA Smart Thermostat, will power a new Irrigation Timer and Load Shed Devices that will also be unveiled at the show. To increase the smart home's flexibility the RTCA Smart Thermostat line can also link with chumbys and chumby-powered devices that also use the Marvell Platform. These new efficient home solutions, with Smart Grid features and remote control access to personal information and resources, enable management of electricity in the home reliably and securely to save consumers valuable energy and money throughout the year.

Powered by Marvell® ultra low power Wi-Fi technologies, processors and networking technologies, the new affordable RTCA energy efficient solutions include a Wi-Fi thermostat, Wi-Fi sprinkler system, and wireless lighting control.

"RTCA's energy efficient products are designed to effectively and efficiently solve a much bigger environmental problem. With RTCA's, Marvell's and chumby's efforts, consumers benefit from remote access to control their household utilities, appliances, and electronics anywhere, anytime to save energy," said Golden Power's Tim Simon. "Our team works hard to innovate and develop smart grid technologies for the state and nation - developments that can now also address the demands of the average consumer. We expect to continue working with Marvell and chumby to help drive standard solutions and protocols for green homes and smart grid connectivity."

"Marvell aims to lead the world in developing technology to make homes smarter, greener and more efficient," said Ms. Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-Founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "Saving energy, time and money is not only important to consumers, it is critical to the future of our planet."

"We are excited at chumby to extend our open hardware platforms, open software, and open application publishing network to enable new and compelling uses for consumers," said Stephen Tomlin, CEO, chumby industries, inc. "Working with leaders like Marvell and RTCA to enhance the smart home with chumby capabilities and content will bring the power of the personal internet to this big opportunity."

Marvell's highly scalable, intelligent processors enable development of devices to connect consumers with access to live digital content and information - anywhere, anytime and any size.

RTCA's home automation platform is designed for home owners, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and professional installers. The wide-ranging home automation platform features multiple radios including Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, RDS, and Flexnet allowing it to communicate with the wide variety of connected devices in homes such as pool pumps, irrigation systems, intelligent connected displays, and other connected smart appliances.

Pricing and Availability

RTCA's Wi-Fi thermostats are available for purchase today via, www.radiothermostat.com, for $99. Demonstrations of RTCA's Wi-Fi thermostat, lighting controls, irrigation timer, and load shed devices will be showcased at CES in Las Vegas. Customers and press can come by the Marvell booth for demonstrations in the South Hall 3 Upper Level, Booth 30642.

About Marvell

Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms "company" and "Marvell" refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit www.marvell.com.

About RTCA

RTCA along with its partner company Golden Power Manufacturing Ltd Hong Kong is a leader in Communicating Thermostats. RTCA sells a wide range of Communicating Thermostats from US$29.95 to over US$200.00. All RTCA Communicating Thermostats use the USNAP radio module which allows the RTCA thermostat to communicate with Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, RDS, FlexNet and other systems. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.radiothermostat.com.

About chumby industries

chumby industries, based in San Diego, California, is a software company that works with consumer electronics OEMs to bring a rich and personalized Internet experience to a multitude of connected products, ranging from devices as simple as clock radios to high-definition televisions. The open chumby platform enables developers to easily create Flash content for chumby-powered devices resulting in a constantly growing catalog of more than 1,500 applications in 30 different categories.

Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

SOURCE Radio Thermostat Company of America