In addition to their use at CME, ZMP Silver Polymer™ batteries are in pilot testing by a brokerage on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading floor. Mike Cheiky, the Chief Technology Officer at Zinc Matrix Power Inc. (ZMP), which invented this new technology, says; "The Silver Polymer Battery has an energy to weight ratio comparable to today's state-of-the-art rechargeable lithium batteries, but, because the silver and zinc reactants are much more dense than lithium and graphite, the Silver Polymer Battery packs much more energy and power into a given size, a feature which is very important in hand-held devices. Silver Polymer prototypes have achieved well over 2 kilowatts per liter, several times the power level of current lithium batteries. This ultra high peak power ensures that a trading floor hand-held can sustain continuous high speed wireless communications with its very demanding pulse power requirements right up to the closing bell, every day."
Traders have enthusiastically adopted Silver Polymer™ batteries, said CME Senior Wireless Systems Engineer, John S. Morris. "We recognized that the high energy demands of wireless networking combined with long trading days required a new battery technology. We worked closely with ZMP on requirements for performance, size, and ease of use to arrive at the current design. We are very pleased by the results."
Zinc Matrix Power, Inc. (www.zincmatrix.com) is a venture-funded start up company founded to produce thin, high energy batteries especially designed for the demands of advanced handheld electronic devices and digital cameras. ZMP is now rolling out Silver Polymer™ technology for workgroup based handheld applications with consumer-oriented production to follow in 2002.
ZMP Silver Polymer™ batteries are used to power CME's GALAX-C hand-held wireless trading units that facilitate access to CME's electronically traded contracts from the trading pit.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX®2 around-the-clock electronic trading system. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign currencies and agricultural commodities. On Nov. 13, 2000, CME finalized its transformation into a for-profit, shareholder-owned corporation as it became the first U.S. financial exchange to demutualize by converting its membership interests into shares of common stock that can trade separately from exchange trading privileges. The exchange moves about $1 billion per day in settlement payments, manages $28 billion in collateral deposits and administers more than $1 billion of letters of credit.
