Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
SiRF GPS Adds Location Awareness to Emerging UMPC Platform
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SUSTeK Computers Selects SiRFstarIII to Drive Industry's First Ultra-Mobile PC with Integrated GPS
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 30 /- SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-enabled silicon and premium software location platforms, today revealed its award-winning SiRFstarIII GPS receiver is at the heart of the newly released ASUS R2H Ultra- Mobile PC, the industry's first ultra-mobile PC with integrated GPS capabilities. The R2H Ultra-Mobile PC represents the entry for both companies into this emerging market, where the ultra-high sensitivity SiRFstarIII GPS receiver is establishing the GPS performance benchmark to enhance the consumer experience for users of this platform.
The single-chip SiRF GSC3f GPS receiver enables ASUS to incorporate real-time, high-performance location awareness and robust navigation capabilities into a feature-rich, ultra-mobile PC, and enables R2H users to employ a variety of business and personal navigation, travel guide and other location-enabled applications. In addition to its integrated SiRF GPS, the ASUS R2H boasts a 7-inch color LCD touch screen with handwritten input support, biometric fingerprint security protection, a high-resolution video camera, 40 to 80 gigabyte hard drives, Bluetooth and WiFi wireless technologies and a Secure Digital (SD) Card reader in a compact package weighing less than two pounds.
"Anticipating emerging market needs and partnering with market leaders to add location awareness to new mobile devices is a key part of our strategy," said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing for SiRF. "The ASUS R2H sets an important precedent, establishing GPS as a core functional component for UMPCs, and bringing the benefit of location awareness to users of this new class of mobile device."
The ASUS R2H is designed to fulfill the increasing need for an all-in-one mobile device that enables professionals to stay connected and productive while on the go. The SiRFstarIII architecture's extremely high sensitivity and robust navigation algorithms enable the ASUS R2H to achieve best-in-class GPS signal acquisition and processing, making real-time navigation practical even through the maze of complex urban canyons and under dense foliage. SiRFstarIII's industry-leading performance comes at a competitive price point for the high-volume consumer electronics marketplace, along with SiRF's ability to support the quick time to market and large manufacturing volume needs of this market.
"As a company that takes pride in its high-quality and innovative technology, it was natural for us to choose the industry's leading GPS solution and the one with the greatest consumer recognition for performance and quality," said David Kao, PM manager of ASUS Notebook Business at ASUSTek COMPUTER INC. "ASUS has been working closely with SiRF for nearly two years on a variety of location-enabled products, and we look forward to the continued success of our relationship."
A winner of PC Magazine's Award for Technical Excellence, the SiRFstarIII architecture can track more than 20 GPS satellites, employs the equivalent of more than 200,000 correlators and sophisticated navigation algorithms, and is able to track signals down to -159 dBm, making real-time navigation practical in almost any environment. The GCS3f combines a complete GPS digital baseband processor, RF front end and stacked flash in a single, compact, 7-mm x 10-mm package to deliver unmatched time to first fix (TTFF) at the low signal levels.
About ASUSTeK
Ranks in Business Week InfoTech 100 for the 8th straight year, ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is a leading provider of 3C total solutions. Its product portfolio includes notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, information appliances, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices. With strong engineering capability, ASUSTeK won 1706 awards in 2005, translating to more than 4 awards per day. The company is the perennial leader of the motherboard and graphics card industries and a top 4 maker globally for notebooks.
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/.
FCMN Contact: rparr@sirf.com
Source: SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc.
CONTACT:
Lori Evans of Evans Public Relations,
+1-650-312-8344,
cell, +1-650-200-5891,
lori@evanspublicrelations.com,
for SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc.;
or
Rebecca Parr of SiRF Technology, Inc.,
+1-408-392-8422,
rparr@sirf.com
Web site: http://www.sirf.com/
