SiRF GPS Chipset Ramps into High Volume on Teradyne`s Catalyst with MicroWAVE6000

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2001--Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) announced today that SiRF Technology, Inc. is accelerating the production of its SiRFstar(TM) chipsets on Catalyst systems equipped with the MicroWAVE6000(TM) Instrumentation Suite. The SiRFstar chips, enabled with SnapLock signal re-acquisition, provide global positioning (GPS) and navigation in applications otherwise challenged by environments adverse to radio reception, such as "urban canyons" and forests.

Shawn Kalami, Director of Product and Test Engineering for SiRF, said, "The SiRFstar chipset is a high performance GPS solution, and as a result presented a number of RF, mixed-signal, and digital test challenges. Teradyne's Catalyst Tester allowed us to perform DC to RF functionality test in a single-pass and ship devices furthering our goal of bringing GPS into mainstream consumer platforms."

SiRF's GPS-based solutions enable a range of devices to detect location, including cell phones, automobile navigation systems, telematics systems, handheld GPS navigation devices, child locator systems, as well as commercial applications, such as asset tracking devices and fleet management systems.

David Derian, Wireless/RF Marketing Manager at Teradyne, said, "SiRF's devices are an example of cutting-edge integration over a large spectrum of functions. The Catalyst was engineered to provide the full range of instrument options to cover SOC's such as the SiRFstar chipset, from RF low-noise-amplifiers to embedded ARM cores and memory, and all functions in between."

About MicroWAVE6000

The MicroWAVE6000 instrumentation suite provides a complete range of RF/microwave test capabilities required for current and future wireless devices and communications standards. MicroWAVE6000 includes full 6 GHz source, measure and vector network analysis (VNA) capability, complete 12-term error correction, and graphical-user interface (GUI) based test templates for programming ease-of-use plus options, including: modulation to 2.7 GHz, up to 16 RF pins, noise figure test option, phase noise test option and frequency hopping.

Fully integrated within Catalyst and A5 test systems, MicroWAVE6000 is the only RF/microwave instrumentation available that also allows for complete system configuration flexibility for today's high-volume production environment. Catalyst and A5 systems can either be configured as focused RF test solutions, with ample room for further instrument expansion, or as complete wireless SOC test solutions by augmenting MicroWAVE6000 with the full complement of Teradyne's mixed-signal AC, DC, and digital instrumentation. In addition, MicroWAVE6000 instrumentation can be added easily to Catalyst and A5 installed systems.

About Catalyst

Catalyst dominates the SOC market with test capabilities for DSL, wireless, microwave and power management applications. With more than 4,000 individual users worldwide, Catalyst's IMAGE(TM) programming system is the most widely used ATE software environment. Catalyst currently offers wireless devices, quad-site testing, providing the best test economics and most complete array of analog instrumentation. When a cell call is placed, or a PC, printer, scanner, pager, or DVD is utilized, Catalyst tested ICs make it happen.

About SiRF

SiRF Technology, Inc. of San Jose, CA develops and markets semiconductor and software products that are designed to enable location awareness in high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial applications. Location awareness refers to the ability of a device to determine and make use of the information regarding its location. SiRF's products enable a range of devices to utilize GPS to detect location and have been integrated into mobile consumer devices, such as automobile navigation systems, GPS-based portable computing peripherals and handheld GPS navigation devices, and into commercial applications, such as property tracking devices and fleet management systems. SiRF markets and sells its products in four target markets: wireless handheld, automotive, portable computing and embedded consumer applications. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at www.sirf.com.

About Teradyne

Teradyne (NYSE: TER) is the world's largest supplier of automatic test equipment and high performance interconnection systems for the electronics, telecommunications and Internet industries. Teradyne products are used to test semiconductors, printed circuit board assemblies, telephone lines and broadband networks. Teradyne's backplane assemblies and high-density, high-bandwidth connectors are used in the communications and computing systems central to the Internet infrastructure. In 2000, the company had sales of $3.0 billion and there are currently more than 9600 employees. Teradyne's World Wide Web address is www.teradyne.com.

SiRF and the SiRF logo are registered trademarks of SiRF Technology, Inc

SiRFstar is a trademark of SiRF Technology Inc.

IMAGE and MicroWAVE6000 are trademarks of Teradyne, Inc

“SiRF's devices are an example of cutting-edge integration over a large spectrum of functions. The Catalyst was engineered to provide the full range of instrument options to cover SOC's such as the SiRFstar chipset, from RF low-noise-amplifiers to embedded ARM cores and memory, and all functions in between.”