SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. has introduced the SiRFstarIIA, a GPS system-on-chip designed to lower the cost of automotive navigation and telematics systems.
The device combines the SiRFstarII GPS engine, a 32-bit ARM 720T CPU, and an array of peripheral interfaces including UARTS, a CAN bus, USB, SPI, ATAPI/EIDE, 16 bit hi-fi audio digital to analog converters, 14-bit precision digital to analog converters, and 34 general-purpose I/O pins to support the man-machine interface, audio functions, and other connection and control functions, thus reducing total bill of materials costs.
SiRF is supporting the SoC with its own support tools and is partnering with QNX Software Systems (www.qnx.com) to provide a system development kit and board support package based on the QNX Neutrino real-time operating system. SiRF is also partnering with Horizon Navigation (www.horizonnav.com) to offer NavMate software for sample turn-by-turn and map-based navigation applications.
"The SiRFstarIIA represents our first system-on-chip solution created for a specific market segment to enable a new class of cost-effective auto navigation and telematics systems," said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of SiRF Technology. "It has already been adopted by a leading European tier 1 navigation supplier.”
