SiRF GPS Technology Location-Enables Renesas' Telematics Platform for COMET

SiRFstarIIt(TM) Chipset and SiRFNav Software Adopted by Renesas Technology for QNX-Based Platform Reference Design for COMET

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 18 -- SiRF Technology, Inc. , a leading supplier of GPS enabled location technology, today announced it has been chosen by Renesas Technology as the GPS technology provider to location-enable the Renesas Biscayne(TM) automotive telematics platform for the COMET program. SiRF's solution, comprising the SiRFstarIIt chipset and SiRFNav software, brings world-class, host-based GPS capabilities to the COMET reference design, providing high performance, easy integration and low cost.

"SiRF's technology delivers industry-leading GPS performance in a host-optimized form that can result in significant cost savings for developers of telematics systems," said Anand Ramamorthy, director of car infotainment and telematics, automotive business unit at Renesas Technology America, Inc. "As a valued COMET partner, SiRF is helping Renesas drive the initiative to transform complex systems into turnkey solutions and enable our customers to enter market quickly."

"Today's announcement further demonstrates SiRF GPS is the technology of choice for mainstream automobile navigation and telematics platforms," said Lars Boeryd, director of automotive marketing for SiRF Technology. "SiRF is looking forward to working with automotive electronics system providers to bring COMET-based telematics systems to high volume markets."

The SiRF solution delivers leading GPS and dead-reckoning performance together with significant system cost savings by making optimum use of host resources. The SiRFstarIIt chipset handles all the time critical aspects of obtaining measurements from the GPS satellites, and passes the raw data to the SiRFNav software running on the Biscayne platform's SH-4 host processor under the QNX(R) Neutrino(R) real-time operating system for further processing. The combination enables the best possible navigation performance and accuracy in a small, cost-effective footprint. Vehicle applications requiring continuous and highly accurate position information in all environments can easily upgrade to SiRF's SiRFDRive tightly coupled dead-reckoning software.

"QNX Software Systems is pleased to work with SiRF as a COMET partner to location-enable the Biscayne platform," said Andrew Poliak, automotive business manager, QNX Software Systems. "The ease with which SiRFNav was ported to the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system is a testament to how well the SiRFstarIIt system is architected."

COMET is an acronym for Community Enabling Telematics, and is a community-based initiative aimed at efficiently delivering comprehensive telematics solutions to the market. COMET shortens development and provides customers with access to multiple technologies integrated on a suitable hardware platform in a much more timely fashion. As a result, hardware/software selection and validation processes are made significantly easier. At the same time, the coordinated COMET integration efforts produce a more flexible system design environment so customers can modify and complete their designs more easily and in less time.

SiRF will be presenting the benefits of its high performance GPS capabilities at the COMET Conference, occurring in congruence with the Convergence 2004 Conference on October 18th, 2004 in Detroit, Michigan.

SiRFstarIIt: Solution of Choice for Automobile Navigation & Telematics Applications

The SiRFstarIIt chipset is designed specifically to deliver the most cost- effective, powerful, and accurate GPS and dead reckoning performance available today for automobile navigation applications. As a "tracker solution," SiRFstarIIt separates the real-time critical and non real-time critical tasks between the dedicated GPS chipset and the host CPU, thus dramatically simplifying the integration of GPS navigation software on the host system. SiRFstarIIt significantly lowers overall system level costs by utilizing spare memory and CPU resources of the host CPU system, and simplifying the printed circuit board (PCB) layout.

The SiRFstarIIt solution includes a GPS tracking engine, which obtains and tracks satellite signals, integrated with an on-chip analog to digital converter (ADC); an RF receiver IC; and the accompanying SiRFNav or SiRFDrive software to compute position, time and velocity. The optional SiRFDrive software combines GPS and dead reckoning measurements to provide continuous and accurate navigation in even the most challenging operating environment such as in covered parking lots, tunnels and in urban canyons. This dead reckoning data optimizes and cross-checks the GPS function, resulting in one of the most accurate location solutions available today for automotive applications.

About QNX Software System

With millions of installations worldwide, QNX Software Systems is the global leader in realtime, microkernel operating system technology. Companies like Cisco, DaimlerChrysler, Harris, Siemens, and General Electric rely on QNX technology to build ultra-reliable systems for the networking, automotive, medical, military, and industrial automation markets. Founded in 1980, QNX Software Systems maintains offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Visit http://www.qnx.com/ .

About SiRF Technology

SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. develops and markets semiconductor and software products that are designed to enable location-awareness utilizing GPS and other location technologies in 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 asset tracking devices and fleet management systems. SiRF markets and sells its products in four target platforms: automotive, consumer electronics, mobile computing, and wireless devices. 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.

NOTE: SiRF Technology and the SiRF logo are registered trademarks of SiRF Technology, Inc. SiRFstarIIt is a trademark of SiRF Technology, Inc. Other trademarks are property of their respective companies.