The SiRF Difference

Bringing the PC Chip Business Model to GPS.

Of course, even visionary, pioneering companies have to pay the bills, so during these early years SiRF outflanked its competitors in the professional GPS markets with two revolutionary moves. First, SiRF engineers took a hard look at the state of GPS chips, which until then had been built for highly specific, discrete functions, making them not only limited in functionality but also relatively high in price. SiRF integrated a variety of functions into the silicon, which enabled the company to introduce its first GPS chips at $49 – a ridiculously high price by today’s standards but revolutionary in 1995.  Today, the company holds not only dozens of patents from its PC chip approach to GPS, but also has an important edge in price/performance for all of its products.

Secondly, SiRF created a new customer base for itself by convincing mostly Asia-based board manufacturers – who were then in a cut-throat battle in markets such as graphics, I/O, and networking cards – to use SiRF GPS chipsets to build out complete GPS modules at a fraction of the cost of traditional GPS providers. Today, SiRF continues to bring an aggressive, Intel-style business model to the GPS business – pioneering the introduction of complete end-to-end GPS solutions that encompass chipset, module, operating and application software.