June. 22, 2011 - MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announced its latest GPS solution, MT3339, successfully achieved positioning using QZSS, GPS and SBAS. Being one of the few GPS IC providers in the world, with its QZSS enabled product—MT3339—MediaTek now delivers superior tracking sensitivity and ultra low power consumption with its advanced patent-pending AlwaysLocateTM technology.

With its -165dBm tracking sensitivity, MediaTek’s MT3339 is able to easily track satellites signals in urban areas, while its <20mW tracking power enables longer operating time. The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is a proposed three-satellite regional positioning enhancement system that would be receivable within Japan and Asia Oceania Region. Compared to standalone GPS, the combined system of QZSS, GPS, and SBAS delivers improved positioning performance with better availability of satellites. Integrated with MediaTek’s AlwaysLocateTM technology, the MT3339 can provide positioning easily with minimal power consumption (<3mW). These power saving features are especially suitable for portable applications in these devices.

Koji Terata, Project Manager QZSS at JAXA stated: “JAXA is an innovative and visionary agency that finds and explores the needs of human beings in future positioning technology. Within this mission, we have worked closely with MediaTek to achieve multi-GNSS positioning with QZSS. This technology helps end users achieve more positions and will also drive the trend of future location-based service (LBS) requirements.”

SR Tsai, General Manager of the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at MediaTek further stated: “With the growth of LBS (location-based services) on consumer devices, we can see a significant interest in GPS and AGPS technologies in our customers for many segments of portable devices such as PND, DSC, and cellular phones. As one of the technology leaders in the GPS chip market, MediaTek now offers our new GPS solution, MT3339, which provides not only the world’s highest sensitivity, yet lowest acquisition and tracking power consumption, as well as the lowest external BOM cost solution in a GPS IC solution, but also minimal power consumption in the “always-on position” due to the integration of many advanced features, including AlwaysLocateTM, EASYTM, and EPOTM. We are pleased to have been able to work closely with JAXA on this first multi-GNSS system. With this system and MediaTek’s high sensitivity & low power GPS chipsets, end users can find accurate positioning in a short time and with minimal power consumption. These new technologies will accelerate the realization of positioning everywhere and help us communicate in a seamless fashion.”

MT3339 Product Highlights:

Superior tracking sensitivity at -165dBm. AlwaysLocateTM technology enables “always on” operation due to its ultra low power consumption (<3mW), minimizing battery life impact for portable devices. Reduction of total solution cost and layout size with the integration of power management unit, reset circuit, low noise amplifier, and flash memory. Only eight external passive components needed. Support advanced assisted GPS technology including EASYTM, HotStillTM, and EPOTM. Logger function support with LOCUS technology utilizing embedded flash memory.

About MediaTek

Since 1997, MediaTek has been a pioneering fabless semiconductor company and a market leader in cutting-edge systems-on-chip (SoC) for mobile devices, wireless networking, HDTV, DVD and Blu-ray. Our tightly-integrated, innovative chip designs help manufacturers optimize supply chains, reduce the development time of new products, and extend a competitive edge in crowded markets. Through MediaTek Labs, the company is also building a developer hub that will support device creation, application development, and services for the Internet of Things era. By building technologies that help connect individuals to the world around them, MediaTek is enabling people to expand their horizons and more easily achieve their goals. We believe anyone can achieve something amazing. And we believe they can do it every single day. We call this idea Everyday Genius and it drives everything we do. Visit mediatek.com for more information.