Motorola FLEX™ Development

Motorola Introduces FLEX™ for OEM Solutions

FLEX™ is a one-way, wireless technology created by Motorola to enhance the channel efficiency and reduce the cost of traditional paging systems.

Until recently, the technology has been held exclusively by Motorola. However, Motorola has, now, opened its doors to invite others to license this technology for wireless OEM solutions. The one-way paging infrastructure is currently the cheapest form of wide-area wireless communication, offering an unlimited number of possible OEM solutions!

FLEX™ is implemented by utilizing the FLEX™ receiver kernel in the form of a plug-in library called FLEXstack. FLEXstack utilizes a PAPI (Public Application Programming Interface) and a set of callback functions to establish the foundation software for a FLEX™ wireless device.

Currently, Toshiba, Inc. and Hitachi, Inc. are the only microprocessor manufacturers that have ported FLEXstack to their family of 8-bit and 16-bit microprocessors.

In addition to the appropriate microprocessor and FLEXstack SDK (Software Development Kit), you will need a FLEX™-based receiver. Since the discontinuation of CreataLink by Motorola, several options have emerged. Please contact us for more information on the availability of receiver solutions.

Conquest Consulting and FLEX

Conquest Consulting engineers have been involved with developing FLEX-based products since 1996. One of our lead engineers has been trained in Boynton Beach by one of the developers of FLEX on the details of the protocol. In addition to this impressive resume, Conquest Consulting boasts that it is the pioneer for OEM integration of FLEXstack. Not only were we the first to successfully implement this technology in an OEM product, but were responsible for running FLEXstack through its paces and assisting Motorola in updating and fine tuning the product to its current revision level.

An important fact that we would like to stress is that the integration of FLEXstack is not trivial. The concept of a plug-and-play PAPI library leads OEM's to believe that the integration of FLEXstack can be done with ease. However, through the normal engineering process many problems will arise which require a firm understanding of FLEX and the low-level details of software / hardware FLEXstack interface. Due to our strong understanding of FLEXstack, many others firms, attempting to implement this technology on their own, have found their way to Conquest Consulting for guidance in their own product development.

If you lack the knowledge of this technology and wish to implement FLEXstack in an existing product line or wish to develop a new wireless device, you will want to involve a consulting firm with experience. Motorola, currently recommends only two consulting firms in the United States to implement FLEXstack. We are proud to announce that Conquest Consulting is one of them (click here to view our listing on the Motorola Web site).