On the hardware side of RFID, PowerID Ltd. announced general availability of its battery-assisted passive RFID label product using the EPCglobal Class 1, Generation 2 (Gen 2) air protocol.

With the support of standards-based Gen 2 RFID readers, the RFID battery-assisted passive labels (RFID BAP) were designed to track challenging materials such as liquids, metal, and paper that can negatively affect the reliability of traditional RFID technology, says PowerID.  The BAP technology enables reliability in difficult environments and boosts the read range of the labels, according to the maker.

IBM and OATSystems announced that Airbus had selected them ot provide a software solution for a multi-million dollar, multi-year RFID project that will help streamline the Airbus supply chain and manufacturing operations.

Airbus has set an objective to error-proof and automate its supply chain and manufacturing operations while reducing costs, say IBM and OATSystems.  The companies were selected after a year of pilot testing.

The companies claim Airbus will be able to use IBM's scalable software and OATSystems' production-ready solutions to integrate RFID into existing applications.