SiRF GPS IP Powers New Renesas Automotive System on Chip

Enables OEMs to Create Higher Integration, In-Dash Navigation and Telematics Systems More Quickly and at Lower Cost
 

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 31, 2007 – SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc., 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™ 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™ 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 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:6501, NYSE: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 www.renesas.com