WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – January 12, 2004 – Strix Systems, Inc. today announced the appointment of Ralph Ungermann as non-executive chairman. Ungermann, who was appointed to the board of directors in July 2003, will provide strategic direction in product and marketing positioning for the Access/One Network, leveraging his experiences taking several companies from start-ups to industry leaders. 

“We are excited that Ralph has decided to accept our offer to become chairman of Strix,” said Bruce Brown, President and CEO of Strix Systems. “Ralph has been a very successful pioneer in the networking industry, and his experiences founding and growing companies will be highly beneficial to Strix as we expand our presence in the global wireless broadband IP network market. Over the years I have had the good fortune to work with Ralph in a number of companies and our skill sets are highly complementary. I look forward to working closely with him again.”

Ungermann has founded and taken three companies public.  As co-founder and chief operating officer of Zilog, Inc., an early leader in the microprocessor industry, he introduced the Z80 product line.  In 1979, he became CEO and co-founder of Ungermann-Bass, Inc., a local area networking pioneer and leader.  Most recently Ungermann has worked with First Virtual Communications, Inc., where he has served in multiple capacities since founding the company in 1993, initially as CEO and now as chairman of the board of directors.

“The Strix Systems Access/One Network provides a very unique value proposition for enterprises and service providers that are looking to deploy wireless broadband IP LANs or MANs,” said Ungermann. “I see phenomenal growth opportunities for Strix as the evolution of wireless networking follows the explosive growth of wired and mobile networking. Strix can meet the demands of management, security, performance, and reliability wirelessly, giving enterprises the productivity gains, ease of deployment, and flexibility that they require from their networking system.”

The Access/One Network moves the industry past the traditional access point and second generation switch model to wireless mesh. Mesh networking creates a self discovering, self configuring, self tuning, and self healing wireless broadband IP LAN or MAN system that can be deployed without wires from the server closet to the users.

Ungermann received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Irvine.

About Strix Systems
Strix Systems designs, develops, and markets wireless network systems that enhance productivity and efficiency by providing employees with instant information via continuous, secure connections to company networks. Based in Westlake Village, California, the company has developed an extensive portfolio of patent-pending technologies. For more information about Strix Systems, please visit www.strixsystems.com.