January 26, 2006

SiRFLink1 - GPS and Bluetooth

SiRF star III SiRF also announced today that they are launching a GPS and Bluetooth platform. They also announced their SiRFLink service today (see article). If their Bluetooth works as well as their GPS reception, they have something going here. SiRFLinkI utilizes a broad range of innovations and advanced technologies to provide a very compact, low power and cost-effective solution for products that need both GPS and Bluetooth functions. Based on an enhanced Bluetooth baseband core, optimized for SiRFLink architecture, from NewLogic Inc, SiRFLinkI minimizes the need for duplicate resources both on and off chip for GPS and Bluetooth functions, thus reducing system level costs.

Low power consumption, so important in consumer devices, is attained with SiRF’s advanced power management technology, which automatically controls power consumption according to operating conditions as well as through utilization of advanced process technologies such as 90 nano meter CMOS for baseband functions and 0.18 nanometer SiGe technology for radio functions. Advanced packaging technology enables SiRF to pack all this functionality into a single 165-pin MCM package 6 x 8 x 1.2 mm small, thus saving precious real estate for applications, such as mobile phones, where space is a major constraint.

In addition to the small size and low power, SiRFLinkI also provides a faster time to first fix in more environments than ever before possible thanks to the power of the SiRFstarIII core combined in many cases with the SiRFLoc™ architecture and the new SiRFInstantFix™ technology, also announced today (see press release entitled, SiRFInstantFix Takes the Wait Out of GPS.) SiRFLoc, introduced in 2003, improves GPS location capability in wireless system environments by utilizing the wireless infrastructure to assist GPS, improving extremely weak signal reception, while SiRFInstantFix eliminates the initial task of obtaining GPS data from the satellites themselves, resulting in much faster time to first fixes on start-ups.

Availability - SiRFLinkI will be demonstrated to key customers at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2006. Production availability is expected in second half of year 2006. Looking forward to it!