Mio Technology Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of personal GPS products, is now offering products that feature SiRFInstantFixII quick GPS signal lock technology to customers in Asia and Europe and plans to feature the technology in a number of upcoming North American products in 2008.   SiRFInstantFixII secures a GPS signal lock in as little as five seconds so users can begin navigating as soon as they’re ready to drive.  Mio Technology will showcase products using this technology in its booth (LVCC South Hall, Booth 35344) at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show.

"As a leading player in the mobile GPS navigation market, we strive to enrich users’ lives, and believe that eliminating the time it takes to acquire a GPS signal is a great step in that direction,” said Samuel Wang, president, Mio Technology.  “We are very excited about the positive effect SiRFInstantFixII will have on the PND user experience.  Through our closealliance with SiRF, we look forward to bringing more innovative technologies to market and helping consumers explore more.”

SiRFInstantFixII is an autonomous version of SiRF’s original SiRFInstantFix technology that significantly improves the time-to-GPS-lock of portable navigation devices (PNDs) and other mobile navigation products without needing any network connectivity for assistance or updates.

SiRFInstantFixII can reduce the time it takes to find and lock a GPS signal during warm starts, the typical PND start-up mode, from more than half a minute to as little as five seconds, and in urban canyons – where tall buildings can impede GPS signals – the difference can be even more significant.  SiRFInstantFixII lessens the wait time while demonstrating excellent positional accuracy by using sophisticated, patent-pending algorithms that enable the PND to model the behavior of visible GPS satellites during the day and predict their position in the sky for up to three days in the future.  SiRFInstantFixII continuously refines its calculations based on the latest data it receives from the satellites being tracked every time the PND is used. 

“Our groundbreaking SiRFInstantFixII technology makes the frequent start-up waits for PNDs a thing of the past,” said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing for SiRF Technology.  “By not requiring any network connectivity or downloads, it significantly improves the daily navigation experience for users of mobile navigation devices.”

The new SiRFInstantFixII has been specifically designed to meet the needs of consumers using devices where a network-based update would be cumbersome or otherwise undesirable.  Manufacturers already using SiRF’s original SiRFInstantFix will find it continues to provide the highest performance for network-connected devices and for products where updates can be performed seamlessly with little or no user interaction.  SiRF offers manufacturers the greatest flexibility to choose between the new “unplugged” SiRFInstantFixII (with three days of satellite predictions) for PND type devices which may have no connectivity and the “classic” SiRFInstantFix (with up to seven days of satellite predictions) for connected devices to best meet their end customer requirements.