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Toshiba Helps Global Locate Meet
6-Month Time-To-Market Window And
Reduce Cost With Marlin™ A-GPS
Custom SOC For Advanced 3G Handsets
And Smartphones
Selection of Toshiba Ultra
Low-Power 130nm Process Technology
Results in Highly Integrated Custom
SoC that Lets Handset Designers
Increase Range and Battery Life
through an Enhanced Power Budget
SAN JOSE, Calif., October
4, 2006 - Toshiba America
Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)*,
today announced that Global Locate,
Inc., a leading provider of Assisted-GPS
(A-GPS) technology to the mobile
wireless market, selected the Toshiba
Corporation (Toshiba) ultra low-power
130 nanometer (nm) process technology
and its leading-edge custom SoC
design services to enable early
market entry at a significant engagement
cost savings. Global Locate’s
Marlin™ chipset is an A-GPS
solution for advanced 3G handsets
and smartphones that adds location-based
services to wireless devices that
may already integrate a mobile
phone, personal digital assistant,
digital camera or other information
appliances. At the heart of the
Marlin solution is a massively
parallel correlation engine that
allows it to search all possible
satellite ranges simultaneously
to acquire outdoor satellite signals
in fraction of a second. Toshiba
delivered the Global Locate custom
SoC in just 6 months from quality
netlist to working prototype and
the chip is currently in high-volume
production.
“Global Locate selected Toshiba
because of its state-of-the-art,
low-power 130nm CMOS process and
broad design-services offering,” said
Donald L. Fuchs, executive vice president
of business development at Global
Locate, Inc. “Our engagement
with Toshiba resulted in a first-spin
success, allowing the Marlin chip
to come to market ahead of schedule.” Global
Locate performed an extensive evaluation
and concluded that Toshiba stood
out from the alternatives both strategically
and tactically. Global Locate
determined that the Toshiba 130nm
business-ready solution reduced design-cycle
time and lowered risk. The
company found that Toshiba offered
proven, low-power, mature libraries
and demonstrated an excellent track
record of success. Toshiba
worked closely with Global Locate
to provide a turnkey solution that
allowed Global Locate to achieve
the required level of power reduction
needed for its product while lowering
the non-recurring cost.
“The collaborative teams from
Global Locate and Toshiba met the
Global Locate market window, allowing
Global Locate to introduce an innovative
product into a high-potential growth
market while meeting cost and performance
targets. Global Locate’s
custom SoC allows handset vendors
to come to market faster and reduce
their overall costs for low-power
handsets,” said Dr. Rakesh
Sethi, director of business development
in the Custom SoC and Foundry Business
Unit at TAEC.
“The Global Locate design
goal was to lower the active and
standby power of the signal-processing
engine, along with achieving high
levels of integration,” Dr.
Sethi continued. “We
used a high-yield Design-for-Manufacturing
(DFM) design flow and our proven,
low-power 130nm process technology
to expedite the development and delivery
of an advanced single-chip SoC.” The
Global Locate single-chip SoC lets
handset designers increase range
and battery life through an enhanced
power budget.
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To reduce power consumption,
Toshiba applied its
multi-VDD and multi-Vth
libraries and segmented
the core into several
islands with each island
supporting reduced
voltages. Custom low-height
I/Os further reduced
power and die size
while lowering cost. Due
to the lower power
consumption, a lower-cost
Toshiba package could
be utilized; this helped
achieve the reduced
board and system costs
critical to the application. High
yields and a fast ramp
up to volume production
were accomplished using
advanced wire spreading
and DFM rules for yield
management.
For more information
on the Global Locate
collaborative experience
in the Toshiba SoC
World, please visit: http://www.toshiba.com/taec/adinfo/
socworld/casestudies_GlobalLocate.html. The
website recognizes
customers whose advanced
ICs are making a
difference in the
Toshiba Custom SoC
World.
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About Global Locate, Inc.
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Global Locate, Inc. is a privately
held company that provides
Assisted-GPS products and services
for wireless devices and networks. Headquartered
in San Jose, CA, the company
has sales offices in the New
York metropolitan area, Tokyo,
Taipei and Madrid. Global Locate’s
A-GPS product suite includes
the Worldwide Reference Network
(WWRN), A-GPS Server and integrated
Global Locate IndoorGPS® chipset.
For more information see www.globallocate.com.
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*About TAEC
Combining quality and flexibility
with design engineering expertise,
TAEC brings a breadth of advanced,
next-generation technologies to its
customers. This broad offering includes
memory and flash memory-based storage
solutions, a broad range of discrete
devices, displays, medical tubes,
ASICs, custom SOCs, microprocessors,
microcontrollers and wireless components
for the computing, wireless, networking,
automotive and digital consumer markets.
TAEC is an independent operating
company owned by Toshiba America,
Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp.
(Toshiba), Japan's second largest
semiconductor manufacturer and the
world's ninth largest integrated
manufacturer of electric and electronic
equipment. In almost 130 years of
operation, Toshiba has recorded numerous
firsts and made many valuable contributions
to technology and society. For additional
company and product information,
please visit TAEC's website at www.chips.toshiba.com.
For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com.
Information in this press release,
including product pricing and specifications,
content of services and contact information,
is current and believed to be accurate
on the date of the announcement,
but is subject to change without
prior notice. Technical and application
information contained here is subject
to the most recent applicable Toshiba
product specifications. In developing
designs, please ensure that Toshiba
products are used within specified
operating ranges as set forth in
the most recent Toshiba product specifications
and the information set forth in
Toshiba's
"Handling Guide for Semiconductor
Devices," or "Toshiba Semiconductor
Reliability Handbook." This
information is available at www.chips.toshiba.com,
or from your TAEC representative.
All trademarks and tradenames used
herein are the properties of their
respective holders.
ASIC 06 448
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