Actually, there is a significant market for this. Commercial 
refrigerators that go
bad in the heat of summer can easily lose their owner $millions easily. 
There
ARE alarm systems for this, but they are cumbersome and use wired landlines.

The general configuration is a TCP/IP stack combined with a cellular modem.
There will shortly be a wave of this kind of design everywhere. I don't 
believe
PICs are up to this application. I see applications like refrigerated 
shippers
with cellular/TCP/IP alarms on ship, rail, and  truck, and some will be 
smarter
and act as intrusion alarms.

Usually these guys are wrong. But they are right this time.

--Bob
 

Chen Xiao Fan wrote:

>In the post dot-com era, I find there are some new buzz words like
>"nano-xxx" and "bio-xxx" are seen everywhere. In the field of sensors,
>"sensor networks" or "wireless sensor networks" are also gaining a lot of
>eyeball in the news.
>
>>From the visit of Zilog and Silabs, I also see that they are as well pushing
>TCP/IP for 8-bit MCUs.  I actually ask them "do you ever need an fridge
>which can connected to internet?" Then they cited networked vending machines
>as an application.
>
>What is your opinion for this? I did not find too many applications for
>TCP/IP for smaller MCUs. For me they are more suitable with bigger 32-bit
>MCUs. Anyway the price of low end Arm-based MCUs from Atmel and Philips are
>hitting US$3 mark.
>
>I also find that Zigbee is the new buzz words for Microchip, Freescale and
>Silabs. Any take on Zigbee?
>
>Chen Xiaofan 
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