in an effort to provide software-based low-cost GPS suitable for mass-market mobile phones and personal navigation devices.

CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) will apply its own experience in embedding radio technologies into the mobile platform and expects its first autonomous and assisted GPS product offerings to be available during the first half of 2007 expecting its cost to fall under $1 per unit of overall bill of materials when used with CSR’s Bluetooth. CSR of Cambridge, UK, announced January 15 that it has acquired NordNav Technologies AB and Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd.

CSR acquired the two companies to bring together solutions to the hurdles inherent in delivering smaller, lower cost, and less power-hungry GPS units for handsets. “

“There are also performance restrictions in terms of both handset and network that have meant that the technology is not appropriate for the mobile platform. “At $5 to $10, current GPS solutions are too expensive and just not practical for mainstream cellphone applications,” said Matthew Phillips of CSR’s Mobile Handset Connectivity strategic business unit. The two acquisitions mean that CSR has removed the barriers for mobile handset makers and operators to provide location-based services for the mass market.

CPS provides extended GPS software algorithms for mobile handsets and network-server software that allow users to achieve a fast location fix (less than 3 seconds), and also provide GPS coverage in dense urban areas and indoors.

CSR acquired, Cambridge Positioning Systems, also based in Cambridge for $35 million cash. The faster fix means that, in comparison to conventional assisted GPS, power can be reduced by a factor of 10 or more.

The software GPS technology acquired from NordNav will take up 80 percent less area than competing hardware solutions. NordNav has already successfully implemented an embedded software receiver for mobile – GPS positioning with an operational performance as good as industry-standard hardwarecentric implementations. NordNav, based in Sweden, was acquired for an initial cash consideration of $40 million, with a further cash consideration of up to $35 million payable subject to future performance objectives being met by NordNav.

CSR’s GPS technology will support the Galileo standard and will demo at the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona.

More than 40 employees have transferred to CSR from NordNav and CPS.

Both NordNav and CPS were private companies, principally owned by venture capital, and both have substantial patented intellectual property.