SiRF GPS IP Powers New Renesas Automotive System on Chip
01 Juni 2007 - 2:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Enables OEMs to Create Higher Integration, In-Dash Navigation and
Telematics Systems More Quickly and at Lower Cost SAN JOSE, Calif.,
May 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc.
(NASDAQ:SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-enabled silicon and
premium software location platforms, today announced Renesas
Technology Corp. has licensed SiRF GPS baseband IP blocks to
location-enable its new SuperH(TM) Family SH7775, an SoC (system on
chip) solution designed for high-performance car information
systems (CIS). With its embedded SiRF GPS capabilities, the Renesas
SH7775 will provide automotive OEMs and their Tier-1 suppliers
worldwide with a solid foundation for building the next generation
of affordable in-dash navigation, telematics and auto information
systems, and offers SiRF entry into the lucrative automotive market
in Japan and elsewhere through its partnership with that country's
leading in-vehicle platform supplier. The SiRF IP solution delivers
superior GPS performance for automotive applications, and achieves
significant system cost savings through greater integration and by
making optimum use of the SH7775's SuperH RISC engine and memory
resources. Along with a standalone SiRF GRF3i+ radio frequency
subsystem IC, the embedded SiRF GPS technology handles all the
time-critical aspects of obtaining location measurements from the
GPS satellites, and passes the raw positioning data to SiRFNav GPS
software running on the SH-4A processor core. SiRF will directly
provide the RF subsystem and system-level integration support to
automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers to ensure successful
integration of the Renesas SH7775 solution into their products,
maintain compatibility and interoperability of the GPS and other
host platform functions and obtain optimal GPS performance. "From a
strategic perspective, our partnership with Renesas is important
because it provides us with an opportunity to significantly enhance
our market position in the in-car navigation and telematics systems
and to gain critical insights into future market needs and trends,"
said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing for
SiRF. "Automotive OEMs and their Tier-1 suppliers can now have the
market proven GPS technology integrated in a cost- effective
automotive system platform from the two market leaders with a
worldwide support infrastructure." Chadha noted that today's
announcement is part of a natural progression of a deepening
relationship between SiRF and Renesas Automotive Business Unit. In
October 2004, SiRF announced it was chosen by Renesas as the GPS
technology provider to location-enable the COMET(TM) Biscayne
automotive telematics platform, bringing world-class, host-based
GPS capabilities to the COMET reference design. Currently, SiRF is
also a member of the SH-Navi Consortium, a resource group developed
by Renesas to help automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers find
solutions to CIS software development problems and encourage
partnerships between the companies involved in the CIS market.
"SiRF is an important global technology partner, and their leading
position in the worldwide GPS market will be an essential
competitive advantage for us as we seek additional business
opportunities outside of Japan, especially in North America and
Europe, and the emerging markets in Asia," said Tsutomu Miki,
general manager, automotive semiconductor business unit at Renesas
Technology Corp. "By partnering with SiRF, we are able to deliver
to our customers a highly robust and cost-optimized GPS solution
ideally suited to creating fully integrated navigation and
telematics systems for mainstream automotive applications." Renesas
SH7775 SoC customers will also have the option of employing SiRF's
tightly coupled dead-reckoning software option, SiRFDrive, for
vehicle applications requiring continuous and highly accurate
position information in all environments. Replacing the standard
SiRFNav software, SiRFDrive software combines GPS and dead
reckoning measurements to provide continuous and accurate
navigation in even the most challenging operating environments,
such as in covered parking lots, tunnels and in urban canyons. This
dead reckoning data optimizes and cross-checks the GPS function,
resulting in the most accurate location solution available today
for automotive applications. The Renesas SH7775 SoC incorporates
the SuperH Family's top-end SH-4A CPU core capable of 1-GIPS and
4.2-GFLOPS processing performance, and integrates many
comprehensive peripheral functions required by car navigation
systems. In addition to the SiRF GPS baseband processing
capabilities, these include a newly developed graphics engine
optimized for map drawing, a 3D graphics engine for high-level
drawing processing, an ATAPI interface, a USB v2.0 host/function
interface and a CAN in-vehicle LAN interface. About SiRF Technology
Holdings, Inc. SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. develops and markets
semiconductor and software products that are designed to enable
location-awareness utilizing GPS and other location technologies,
enhanced by wireless connectivity capabilities such as Bluetooth,
for high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial
applications. SiRF's technology has been integrated into mobile
consumer devices such as automobile navigation systems, mobile
phones, PDAs, GPS-based peripherals and handheld GPS navigation
devices, and into commercial applications such as location servers,
asset tracking devices and fleet management systems. SiRF markets
and sells its products in three target platforms: wireless handheld
devices, such as mobile phones; automotive electronics systems,
including navigation and telematics systems; and consumer and
compute devices, including personal digital assistants, notebook
computers, recreational GPS handhelds, mobile gaming machines,
digital cameras and watches. Founded in 1995, SiRF is headquartered
in San Jose, Calif., and has sales offices, design centers and
research facilities around the world. The company trades on the
NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol SIRF. Additional information
about SiRF and its location technology solutions can be found at
http://www.sirf.com/. About Renesas Technology Corp. Renesas
Technology Corp. is one of the world's leading semiconductor system
solutions providers for mobile, automotive and PC/AV (Audio Visual)
markets and the world's No.1 supplier of microcontrollers. It is
also a leading provider of LCD Driver ICs, Smart Card
microcontrollers, RF-ICs, High Power Amplifiers, Mixed Signal ICs,
System-on-Chip (SoC), System-in-Package (SiP) and more. Established
in 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd.
(TSE:6501TSE:NYSE:TSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
(TSE:6503), Renesas Technology achieved consolidated revenue of 906
billion JPY in FY2005 (end of March 2006). Renesas Technology is
based in Tokyo, Japan and has a global network of manufacturing,
design and sales operations in around 20 countries with about
26,200 employees worldwide. For further information, please visit
http://www.renesas.com/ Forward-Looking Statements Except for the
historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in
this press release, including, but not limited to, statements
regarding the anticipated features, benefits and capabilities of
the SiRF IP Solution and the SiRFNav and SiRFDrive GPS software and
the anticipated features, benefits and capabilities of Renesas'
SH7775 SuperH SoC and the associated peripheral functions are
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "to,"
"will," "being," "possible," "may," "addresses," "designed to,"
"provide," "believe," and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and should not be considered as an
indication of future performance. SiRF's actual results could
differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking
statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, including, among
others, demand and market acceptance for our products and those of
our customers, the market for GPS-based location awareness
capabilities, risks associated with the semiconductor industry and
other risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 and from
time to time in SiRF's SEC reports. These forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake
any obligation to update forward-looking statements. DATASOURCE:
SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. CONTACT: Lori Evans of Evans Public
Relations, +1-650-312-8344, mobile, +1-650-200-5891, , for SiRF
Technology Holdings, Inc.; or Rebecca Parr of SiRF Technology,
Inc., +1-408-392-8422, Web site: http://www.sirf.com/
http://www.renesas.com/
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