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SiRFatlasIV Multifunction Location System Processor Delivers Premium Location and Multimedia Power for Budget-Conscious Consumers

Available Now in Production Quantities, the SiRFatlasIV Platform Maximizes Profits for Makers of Innovative, High-Volume Navigation and Location Devices

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 9, 2009 – Targeting an emerging class of location-centric devices for budget-conscious consumers, SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-powered location platforms, today introduced the SiRFatlasIV® multifunction location system processor, a versatile solution for creating high-volume, navigation and location-aware products. With its high performance location engine and twice the memory bandwidth of current entry-level systems, the SiRFatlasIV platform – available now in production quantities – is designed to minimize bill of materials (BOM) and overall system cost while giving manufacturers the premium location and multimedia performance they need to create innovative, value-priced consumer products.

SiRFatlasIV complements the premium SiRFprima® multifunction location system processor introduced last year, and combines the same advanced location engine of SiRFprima with a multifunction feature set more optimized for entry level systems. Working closely with its key customers, SiRF designed the SiRFatlasIV architecture to reduce overall system BOM costs, including the integration of many high-cost peripheral functions onto the single chip, while giving customers flexibility to differentiate. SiRFatlasIV is already in use by several leading original equipment and original device manufacturers, including ASUS International/Unihan Technology Corp., Binatone Electronics International Limited, CiRex Technology Corporation, Foxconn Technology Group, Globalsat Technology Corporation, Maylong and Maylong’s GPS for Dummies, Navigon AG, NDrive Navigation Systems SA, Nextar Inc., Wistron Corporation and YF International.

“We believe multifunction, location-centric consumer devices are best served by multifunction location silicon and software platforms. The compelling cost/performance benefits of our SiRFatlasIV solution enable our customers to profitably address these high-volume consumer markets today without compromising the location performance consumers have come to expect from SiRF,” said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing for SiRF. “Together, our SiRFatlas and premium SiRFprima multifunction system platforms enable SiRF’s customers to offer a complete range of location-centric products with industry leading location, visualization and multimedia performance across all tiers of the mainstream market.”

By integrating the same advanced location engine as found in the SiRFprima platform, the SiRFatlasIV solution brings to value-priced products a level of location performance traditionally found only in high-end navigation systems. This high-sensitivity, 64-channel, multi-satellite system location engine, with more than 1,000,000 correlators, improves time to first fix (TTFF) in tough environments, and provides true -161-dBm simultaneous tracking of both GPS and Galileo satellites. Also, due to its intelligent sharing of system memory, the location engine is able to use the vast system resources available to improve tracking accuracy and navigation and further reduce cost.

The SiRFatlasIV’s high sensitivity GPS core also allows the use of lower cost patch antennas and less expensive 2.5 ppm crystal oscillators without impacting performance. These cost-driven innovations broaden the potential for a wide range of entry-level and mid-range navigation and location-aware consumer devices.

“When developing our 3300 max and 4300 max product lines, we were looking for a solution that would enable us to deliver a premium navigation experience at an entry-level price, one with the GPS performance and application and graphics horsepower to support our unique MyRoutes feature, which actually learns the driver’s habits and tailors routes to fit the individual’s driving style, as well as our Reality View Pro, which displays roads realistically,” said Belhassen Jerbi, head of product management at Navigon AG. “The SiRFatlasIV gives us industry-leading GPS performance, a powerful application processor, multimedia processor and other peripherals integrated in a cost-effective solution, which enables us to bring these products to market at an entry-level cost structure.”

With ever increasing demands for faster route calculations, rich multimedia support, and a richer visualization experience, the SiRFatlasIV provides a 500-MHz ARM11 processor core with vector floating point unit complimented by a 64-bit system bus and an advanced, high-speed memory controller with DDR 400/Mobile-DDR 333 memory module support to provide plenty of horsepower and memory bandwidth for the most demanding application scenarios. The built-in hardware video post processing accelerator handles video rendering and display, allowing popular mobile digital TV applications such as TDMB, DVB-H and CMMB to run with minimal impact on CPU performance.

“With consumers demanding top-of-the-line features at entry-level prices, we chose the SiRFatlasIV because it is an ideal platform for creating such products, offering superior GPS performance, powerful application and graphics processors and more integrated in a single, very cost-effective package,” said Eddy Zheng, president and founder of Nextar, Inc. “The Q4-MD is a fully featured portable navigation system we are able to offer at a price that our value-driven consumers expect, thanks in large part to the reduced chip count and cost savings we realize from employing the SiRFatlasIV.”

The integrated NAND and SD controller design supports both single and multi-layer cell (SLC/MLC) flash memory, allowing system designers greater flexibility in selecting either a low cost or a robust NAND product.

By providing a full complement of embedded components and peripherals – including GPS/Galileo baseband, LCD touch-screen controller, 10-bit ADC, video input and high-speed USB 2.0 PHY – the SiRFatlasIV platform enables manufacturers to achieve extremely low overall system cost.

“We are committed to providing solutions that enable manufacturers to build budget-priced PNDs and other location-aware products at lower cost, without compromising location performance,” said Conlan Ma, director of marketing for the PND market. “At the same time, we have normalized the design layout and unified our software development environment across our SiRFatlas and premium SiRFprima solutions to enable development of a full product range on a single platform.”

SiRFAtlasIV-Based Customer Systems

Navigon 3300 max, 3310 max, 4310 max and 4350 max: These navigation systems can display realistic 3D views of roads, and can adapt to driving habits and intelligently suggest routes. They are paired with SiRF’s InstantFixII fast-start technology and the SiRF GRF3i+ GPS radio subsystem for fast fix times and improved immunity against near-band RF interference in electrically noisy vehicle environments.

Nextar, Inc. Q4-MD: A low-cost, feature-rich portable navigation device that provides realistic 3D renderings of buildings for most major cities. The Q4-MD can play back stereo mp3 audio files and display photos, and with MSN Direct provides up-to-date traffic reports, current and three-day local or national weather conditions, and gas-price comparisons for nearby stations, as well as news headlines, stock quotes, movie times and local event information.

YF International model 82A: This fashionable and ultra-slim platform combines the SiRFatlasIV multifunction location processor with Microsoft’s Windows CE .NET 6.0 Core version operating system to enable OEMs to tailor this product to their needs. The 4.3-inch resistive touch color display panel, built-in speaker, stereo jack, SD/MMC slot and USB port support a variety of multifunction applications.

Availability and Pricing

Already fully production qualified and available in high volumes, the SiRFatlasIV multifunction location processor measures 12 mm x 12 mm with 1.1-mm height, comes packaged in a 292-ball grid array (TFBGA) with 0.65-mm pitch and supports both WinCE and Linux operating systems. Please contact a SiRF sales representative for pricing information.

SiRF’s Multifunction Platforms

SiRF’s multifunction platforms are designed to unleash the power of next-generation, location-centric convergence devices, significantly enhancing the consumer experience for location applications and media rich content. Offering industry leading GPS/Galileo location performance and powerful application processors with a common development environment, these platforms provide a rich visualization and multimedia experience. SiRFatlasIV integration is optimized for the requirements of entry- and mid-level devices, while SiRFprima, with its dedicated hardware for high-resolution multimedia and 3D graphics, is optimized for higher-end systems.

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CSR Debuts Breakthrough SiRFstarIV Location-Aware Architecture

SiRFaware Technology Delivers Continuous Location Awareness without Compromising Battery Life

CAMBRIDGE, England & SAN JOSE, Calif., July 28, 2009 -- CSR plc., a leading provider of GPS-powered location platforms, today launched its breakthrough SiRFstarIV™ location-aware architecture with exclusive SiRFaware™ self-assisted, micro-power GPS technology that enables consumer devices to always be location aware – without draining batteries and without requiring network aiding. CSR today also introduced its first SiRFstarIV-based product, the GSD4t receiver, which offers a superior solution for enabling mobile phones and other space- and power-constrained devices to have the robust, always-available geo-awareness consumers are demanding.

“I am very pleased that we are able to launch such a major, breakthrough technology so soon after our merger with SiRF,” said Joep van Beurden, CEO of CSR. “Today’s announcement significantly strengthens our GPS product offerings and our location technology portfolio.”

The essence of the SiRFstarIV breakthrough is its ability to continually maintain “better-than-hot-start” conditions in the GPS receiver for fast location fixes without having to be kept fully turned on all the time and draining precious battery power. Until now, designers of mobile devices were forced to completely turn off GPS receivers when not in use to conserve power, causing annoying start-up delays when a location application needed to get a new location fix quickly. Through a fusion of multiple innovations, the unique SiRFaware technology overcomes this barrier with or without network aiding while consuming only 50-500 microamperes of current.

“With consumers expecting reliable location services everywhere, we had to rewrite the traditional rule book on GPS architectures and create a new, low-energy way to maintain continuous location awareness without draining the device battery or requiring network assistance,” said Kanwar Chadha, chief marketing officer for CSR and founder of SiRF. “With SiRFstarIV and our unique SiRFaware technology, we have developed an architecture that will not only significantly improve the consumer experience when navigating with smartphones, but also enable consumer devices to maintain continuous location awareness.”

According to Chadha, people count on using their mobile phones and other mobile consumer devices just about everywhere, and expect pretty much the same of these devices’ location functionality, and this was a critical consideration while developing the SiRFstarIV architecture. As a result, SiRFstarIV GPS receivers are more compatible with how consumers actually use these kinds of products, delivering a superior user experience by enabling handsets and other mobile devices to always get a fast location fix without significantly impacting battery life. SiRFstarIV’s unique blend of high performance and low energy location-awareness modes opens the door to the more widespread use of GPS in digital still cameras and camcorders, hand-held games and a wide variety of portable consumer electronics devices.

The SiRFstarIV Architecture

The SiRFstarIV architecture core is comprised of a high-performance GPS location engine, smart location sensor interface, adaptive micro-power manager and active jammer remover, which together deliver:
* Twice the search capacity of the industry proven SiRFstarIII™ architecture, resulting in enhanced sensitivity, reduced time-to-fix and improved positional accuracy
* Advanced micro-power management and integrated switched-mode regulation that maintains hot-start conditions with minimal energy (50-500 microamperes)
* Intelligent MEMs sensor support (for accelerometers and other sensors) that improves the location experience, enabling greater contextual awareness, more sophisticated energy management and enhanced indoor positional accuracy
* Advanced DSP technology that actively searches for jammers and removes them prior to correlation for maximum GPS performance and design troubleshooting

SiRFstarIV GSD4t

The first implementation of the SiRFstarIV architecture, the GSD4t host-based platform, is optimized for mobile phones and other space and power-sensitive consumer devices. The GSD4t receiver provides industry leading performance, with navigation to -160 dBm, tracking to -163 dBm and excellent pass margins for E911 and 3GPP. It can maintain its full rated -160-dBm acquisition sensitivity without network assistance. A low-power champion, the GSD4t receiver requires only 8 mW in 1-Hz TricklePower mode – two and a half times less than the industry benchmark SiRFstarIII.

SiRFstarIV GSD4t features such as active jamming removal, single-SAW design, an on-chip LNA, fail-safe I/O, integrated switchers, single supply voltage, simple RF matching and small size and packaging also make SiRF’s GPS receivers easier for designers to use and integrate into their products.

“Radio frequency interference within a portable consumer product, such as from embedded Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mobile radios, as well as LCD screens, can easily inhibit GPS performance, and often does not become apparent until shortly before the product is due to go into production. This can easily add months of delay until the issue is resolved,” said Dave Huntingford, director of product management for CSR’s handset business unit. “Our unique active jammer removal not only solves this issue, but can pinpoint for designers much earlier in the development process the precise strength and source of these interfering signals, enabling them to be contained in the design phase rather than in later, more costly test phases.”

Available in a 42-ball, 0.4-mm pitch wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP), the GSD4t offers low integration and BOM costs and fast time-to-market, combining RF receiver, baseband, switcher and low-current LDOs on a single chip, and requiring only six to eight external passive components and a single SAW to provide a complete solution that occupies less than 20 square millimeters, including switcher parts.

Availability and Pricing

The SiRF GSD4t host-based GPS receiver is available now in sample quantities, with production quantities planned for October. Please contact your CSR sales representatives for pricing information.

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