Clarinet Systems to Provide 4Mbps Fast Infrared (FIR) Connectivity
for the New HP iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC

Clarinet Systems, Inc. ( www.clarinetsys.com ), a provider of wireless infrared networking solutions for handhelds, has announced completion of Fast Infrared (FIR) performance testing for the new HP iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC operating with Clarinet Systems EthIR LAN infrared wireless access points. Using an advance release of an hx4700 iPAQ provided by HP, Clarinet's testing revealed that, at 4 Mbps connectivity speeds, FIR significantly reduces the synchronization time between PDAs and network servers by a factor of 10 or more times over SIR (115 Kbps) in all applications in which infrared networking is used. For example, in Clarinet's tests, a 1 MB file transfer through an EthIR LAN switch was completed in 10 seconds with the HP iPAQ hx4700 FIR-equipped PDA as compared to 112 seconds with a typical SIR-equipped Pocket PC PDA available in the market today. .

Wen Chang, President of Clarinet Systems, said, "Clarinet is pleased to have had the opportunity to work with HP to provide our EthIR LAN solution to a new generation of iPAQ hx4700 users who will benefit enormously from the high-speed and highly secure network connectivity available from their new FIR-enabled iPAQs when used with our EthIR LAN FIR-equipped switches. Clarinet provides our switches to many market sectors where the EthIR LAN technology's "interference-free" data transmission functionality is essential. In the healthcare market, for example, we receive constant demand for ever-increasing network connectivity speeds for PDA devices from our major healthcare industry software integration partners, such as McKesson, Siemens Medical Systems, MercuryMD, Cerner, Patientkeeper, AccessPt. and others. We work with all of them to supply IR wireless networking solutions to leading hospitals and medical facilities nationwide, where PDAs have become virtually a standard tool among physicians, nurses and other medical professionals. The iPAQ hx4700 with the EthIR LAN solution will be a direct response to those healthcare customer demands for higher speed PDA network access. In addition, we will be able to better address the rapidly growing needs for high-speed/high-security wireless PDA networking in many other markets such as logistics, where UPS is a major user of Clarinet's EthIR LAN switches for data synchronization for ruggedized handheld terminals that take advantage of our 4Mbps FIR capability."

"HP is very excited about bringing the new iPAQ hx4700 to the market with its pace-setting features such as FIR and a high-resolution VGA touch screen. The FIR functionality will provide customers with high-speed 4 Mbps dedicated wireless network connectivity combined with an intrinsically high level of wireless networking security. HP looks forward to partnering with Clarinet to bring the iPAQ with EthIR LAN wireless networking solution to customers in a wide range of markets, including healthcare, enterprise, schools and universities, hospitality, public access and other areas," said Michael McNulty, iPAQ marketing manager, Personal Systems Group at HP.

Additional information about the HP iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC series is available at www.hp.com .

Clarinet Systems' EthIR LAN Series wireless infrared network switches are used in industrial, enterprise, healthcare, logistics, hospitality, educational and other markets where users value the capability that Clarinet's EthIR LAN switches provide to quickly, easily and securely establish network access with users' PDA's through the infrared ports that are built into virtually all handheld devices as standard options. Additional information about the EthIR LAN Series is available at www.clarinetsys.com.