Radio-frequency-identification (RFID) semiconductor manufacturers Royal Philips Electronics and Texas Instruments have agreed to cooperate on conformance testing for the technical interpretation of the EPCglobal Electronic Product Code(EPC) Generation (Gen) 2 RFID standard.

This joint effort is aimed at ensuring interoperability and accelerating market deployment of Gen 2 products, such as labels, hardware, and system solutions, to offer multiple sourcing for implementations of RFID throughout the world.

The EPC Gen 2 standard, currently in the process of standardisation by the International Standards Organisation (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for global adoption, is the newest and most advanced of the RFID specifications for the ultra-high-frequency (UHF) band centred around 900 MHz. It is widely supported by end users and manufacturers within the RFID industry, and will facilitate the deployment of RFID technology in the retail supply chain. EPC Gen 2 has several advantages over the first-generation EPC Class 0 and Class 1 standards, including optimised performance in different global regulatory environments, read/write field programmability, faster tag read/write rates, operation in dense reader environments, and migration to future EPC classes.