Satellite Technology Feature Article
October 10, 2008
SiRF Technology Debuts SiRFlinkIII Radio IC
By Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributor
SiRF Technology (News - Alert) Holdings, a provider of GPS-powered location platforms, has introduced the SiRFlinkIII combination radio IC. With a complete Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR controller optimized for use with the SiRFatlas and SiRFprima multifunction SoC platforms, the SiRFlinkIII single-chip solution combines a high-performance GPS RF front end.
Minimizing the external components, the SiRFlinkIII IC’s high level of integration provides enhanced engineering design flexibility when dealing with today’s space-limited handheld devices. Also, manufacturers can considerably speed their time to market with the help of the pre-integrated evaluation kit, audio software, profiles and other features.
Along with interoperability testing, the SiRFlinkIII combo radio IC has successfully passed Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR qualification tests. The SiRFlinkIII combo radio can provide a low bill of materials (BOM) cost and a small footprint solution for full-featured portable navigation devices (PNDs) and other mobile, location-aware devices with the help of the GPS and Bluetooth functions share many peripheral components, such as power regulators and clock sources, the SiRFlinkIII combo radio IC.
The SiRFlinkIII solution is pre-integrated with the SiRFatlas and SiRFprima SoC platforms, which facilitates the inclusion of valuable features for Bluetooth operation in PNDs, such as noise and echo cancellation for superior voice performance. It is also available with well known Bluetooth profiles such as HFP, A2DP, DUN and others from leading Bluetooth profile vendors.
The SiRFlinkIII solution is designed to drive its on-chip Bluetooth radio at full class 2.0 power and is available now with a well developed reference design and software drivers. Providing low-cost, fast-time-to-market Bluetooth functionality to next-generation mobile convergence devices, the SiRFlinkIII solution is designed to drive its on-chip Bluetooth radio at full class 2.0 power.
“SiRFlinkIII is designed to address our customers’ need to build cost-effective mobile navigation and location-aware devices with wireless connectivity for enhanced functionality, such as hands-free calling, without compromising the location performance,” said Kanwar Chadha, vice president of marketing and founder of SiRF.
“By pre-integrating SiRFlinkIII with our multifunction SoC platforms, we are able to optimize the system-level performance while minimizing the design complexity for our customers to enable them to accelerate their time to market,” added Chadha.
According to Chadha, as a leader in the location technology field, SiRF continually strives to anticipate customer needs for enhanced functionality, and utilizes its multidimensional technical expertise to create more value-added products to address these needs in a cost-effective way. SiRFlinkIII is the latest example of such innovation.
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Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michelle Robart
