CSR Unveils Newest SiRFstarIV Family Member
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CSR Unveils Newest SiRFstarIV Family Member

GSD4e GPS Location Processor with Built-in CPU Ensures Quick Time to Market for Broad Range of Location-Aware Consumer Devices

SAN DIEGO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 8, 2009 — CSR plc., a leading provider of GPS-powered location platforms, today introduced the SiRFstarIV™ GSD4e GPS location processor, the newest member of the recently launched SiRFstarIV architecture, an innovation that promises to redefine the meaning of “location awareness” for mobile devices. Building upon the SiRFstarIV architecture’s high-performance and micro-power capabilities, the GSD4e adds a built-in CPU and innovations such as SiRFGeoRecov™ technology that are optimized to ensure continuous location awareness in a new breed of digital cameras, portable game consoles, wearable platforms and other consumer devices, without loading the host processor.

“Adding the GSD4e to our SiRFstarIV portfolio gives our customers the choice of both plug-in and host-based implementations of our breakthrough location awareness technology for greater flexibility in creating a variety of geo-aware mobile devices, furthering our vision of making location truly a part of everyday life,” said Kanwar Chadha, chief marketing officer for CSR and founder of SiRF. “And because it has a built-in processor, the GSD4e makes it easy to quickly integrate location awareness into existing platforms, enables development of innovative modules and products with customizable differentiation and provides our extensive SiRFstarIII™ customer community with a seamless upgrade path.”

Leading module vendors worldwide, including Vincotech, Navman Wireless, Kyocera, Mitsumi and SEMCO, are designing modules with the GSD4e in Q4 2009, accelerating time to market for SiRFstarIV-enabled consumer products.

The GSD4e’s innovative adaptive accuracy and SiRFGeoRecov technologies make it possible to instantly geo-tag images or videos with a camera or camcorder and improve the accuracy as better GPS information becomes available. It also enables people to locate social networking friends on a smartphone, track a jogging course with a wearable device, perform location-based searches with a laptop or netbook or find their way through buildings and urban canyons with a pedestrian navigation system. Additionally, it can do all these things in everyday environments and in many cases even if the device has been turned off for weeks or months. Unlike other GPS solutions on the market today that many times fail to provide any location fix at all, the GSD4e ensures that devices are on the “location grid,” even in extremely low signal conditions. And the GSD4e’s sophisticated motion-sensing algorithms ensure advanced power management and stable, accurate positioning, even when standing still.

Much broader in applicability, easier to design and more flexible than host-based architectures, the GSD4e is a complete position-velocity-time (PVT) solution. It not only opens the door to a new class of location-aware consumer devices, but also raises the performance bar in the traditional GPS engine market for smartphones, GPS modules, multi-radio modules and similar applications. The GSD4e can navigate to -160 dBm and track to -163 dBm, and for smartphone customers the GSD4e offers an extraordinary 7.5-dB 3GPP pass margin and high E911 sensitivity to ensure success in virtually any handset design. It also offers a fully certified A-GPS protocol stack with quick drop-in to multiple smartphone operating systems. The GSD4e consumes only 8 mW in 1-Hz TricklePower mode, and can maintain hot-start conditions continuously in SiRFaware mode while drawing as little as 50-400 μA. Its enhanced SiRFNavPlus navigation engine ensures seamless car and pedestrian navigation in extremely tough urban canyon and dense foliage environments.

Available in both ROM and flash supported versions, the GSD4e is the first CSR product to come with patented SiRFInstantFix™ synthetic ephemeris technology as a standard feature for even greater performance. On-chip active jammer removal, a key feature of the SiRFstarIV architecture, not only eliminates electrical noise commonly associated with the motors, LCD screens and other components commonly found in smartphones, cameras, game consoles and other consumer devices, but also pinpoints 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. The GSD4e also supports a full range of satellite-based augmentation systems, including WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GAGAN.

“The ROM version of the GSD4e GPS engine has the advantage of being an extremely cost-effective, small and low-power solution with complete location capability for easy integration into space and processing resource constrained consumer devices,” said Sunil Gopinath, senior product marketing manager for CSR’s audio and consumer business unit. “The flash version gives customers access to extra throughput of the CPU, more flexibility to customize and quick access to new, innovative algorithms from CSR, while our development tools enable them to create custom software to run on the GSD4e processor and flash memory, and thus add their own innovations.”

Gopinath explains that the GSD4e has built-in circuitry and temperature adaptive software that allows it to replace a temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) with a low-cost crystal, thus enabling bill of materials (BOM) conscious customers to design GPS into their products with the lowest BOM cost in the market today.

He also explains that the GSD4e’s integrated eFuse technology helps customers take system configuration to the next level by electronically setting custom configurations at system boot-up instead of the time consuming manual software changes inherent in current products in the market today.

The ROM version measures a 3.5 mm × 3.2 mm, and comes in a 42-ball, 0.5-mm pitch wafer level chip scale (WLCSP) package. The flash version measures 5 mm × 7.2 mm, and comes in a 103-ball, 0.5-mm pitch ball grid array (BGA) package.

The GSD4e combines RF receiver and integrated LNA, baseband circuitry, switcher and low-current LDOs on a single chip, and requires only five to six external passive components and a single SAW to provide a complete solution that occupies less than 25 square millimeters, including switcher parts.

The SiRFstarIV Advantage

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:

Availability and Pricing

The CSR SiRFstarIV GSD4e single-chip GPS engine with external flash memory is available in sample quantities this month. The ROM version will be available later this quarter. Production quantities are scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. Please contact your local CSR sales office for pricing information.

About CSR

CSR is a leading provider of multifunction connectivity and location platforms. CSR’s technology portfolio includes Bluetooth, GPS, GNSS, FM, Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11), UWB, NFC and other technologies to enable silicon platforms that incorporate fully integrated radio, baseband and microcontroller elements.

CSR’s Connectivity Centre is designed to enhance the user experience with mainstream mobile devices by intelligent integration of multiple wireless connectivity and location-awareness technologies. CSR’s Location Platforms are complemented by wireless connectivity and multimedia capabilities for high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial applications.

CSR’s technology has been adopted by market leaders into a wide range of mobile consumer devices such as mobile phones, automobile navigation and telematics systems, portable navigation devices (PNDs), wireless headsets, mobile computers, mobile internet devices, GPS recreational devices, digital cameras, mobile gaming, plus a wide range of personal and commercial tracking applications.

CSR and SiRF merged on June 26, 2009, and SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. became a member of the CSR group of companies.

More information can be found at www.csr.com.

Forward-looking statements:

This press release contains certain statements (including statements concerning plans and objectives of management for future operations or performance, or assumptions related thereto) that are ‘forward looking statements’ within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 in relation to the launch of the SiRF GSD4e GPS receiver and other future events and their potential effects on CSR. These forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as ‘expects’, ‘can’, ‘will’, ‘plans’, 'promises to,' 'optimized to ensure,' 'enables,' 'opens the door to' and other similar expressions, including statements relating to: redefining “location awareness”, high performance and micro-power capabilities of the SiRFstarIV architecture, and the ability to provide continuous location awareness to multiple platforms, provide greater flexibility, quickly integrate location awareness into existing platforms, enable development of innovative modules and products, provide a seamless upgrade path, accelerate time to market, improve accuracy, enable consumers with new location based experiences on multiple platforms in everyday environments even if the device is turned off for extensive periods of time, ensure that devices are on the “location grid,” in extremely low signal conditions, ensure advanced power management and stable, accurate positioning, provide an architecture that is broader in applicability, easier to design and more flexible, create a new class of location-aware consumer devices, raise the performance bar, ensure success, provide a quick drop-in to multiple smartphone operating systems, ensure seamless navigation in extremely tough environments, eliminate electrical noise, pinpoint the precise strength and source of interfering signals earlier, contain interfering signals in the design phase, provide a cost-effective, small and low-power solution, provide easy integration into space and processing resource constrained devices, grant access to extra throughput of the CPU, provide flexibility to customize, grant access to new algorithms from CSR, create custom software, replace a temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) with a low-cost crystal, enable bill of materials (BOM) conscious customers to design GPS into their products, provide lowest BOM cost in the market, take system configuration to the next level, as well as the ability to deliver twice the search capacity of the SiRFstarIII™ architecture, advanced micro-power management and integrated switched-mode regulation, intelligent MEMs sensor support, advanced DSP technology, and a ROM version and production quantities in first quarter of 2010. Availability of production quantities are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by CSR, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by CSR and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. Performance metrics stated are proven in a lab environment and are not guaranteed in all environments.

Such forward-looking statements represent the current expectations and beliefs of management of CSR, and are based upon numerous assumptions regarding CSR’s business strategies and the environment in which CSR will operate and are not guarantees of future performance. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, contingencies, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of CSR. Our actual performance and results may differ materially from those contemplated in our forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, including competition, global economic conditions, product performance, demand, our ability to effectively market our products, our ability to maintain our customer base, effectively bring new products to market, achieve market acceptance for our products and the success of our customers, potential disputes involving third parties, our patents or intellectual property, uncertainties related to business or industry conditions, the market for GPS-based location awareness and services, and risks associated with the semiconductor industry and other business strategies, as well as the risk factors described in our other public disclosures. Each forward looking statement speaks only as of the date hereof. CSR does not undertake to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statements contained herein, otherwise than required by law.


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