Atheros joins navigation club

WIRELESS developer Atheros Communications has announced it is to acquire u-Nav Microelectronics, a semiconductor design firm specializing GPS chipsets and software aimed at location-based services.

The acquisition, for US$54 million in cash and stock, is the latest in the red-hot navigation and location-based services markets.

The addition of u-Nav’s shipping GPS technologies to Atheros’ Radio-on-Chip for Mobile (ROC) portfolio will let the company deliver high-performance, cost-efficient combinations of mobile solutions featuring WLAN, Bluetooth and GPS technologies.

The GPS-enables device market is one of the fast growing electronics segments worldwide. The research firm, In-Stat, forecasts the number of GPS-enabled mobile devices to grow from 180 million units in 2007 to 720 million units in 2011.

The company said this compound annual growth rate of more than 75 per cent is driven by the increasing popularity among consumers of GPS services in wireless handsets and personal navigation devices, and the expansion of the capability into consumer devices such as laptops, mobile gaming products and digital cameras

“With u-Nav’s GPS competency we will deliver an impressive set of wireless solutions that include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, increasing the value we bring to our customers,” said Atheros president and chief executive Craig Barratt.

The privately held u-Nav was founded in 2001 and is based in California. Its 54 employees will join Atheros but remain in Irvine and at u-Nav's European engineering facility in Finland. u-Nav chief executive Greg Winner has been appointed general manager of Atheros' GPS business.

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Navteq owners approve Nokia deal

SHAREHOLDERS of digital mapping data specialist Navteq have overwhelmingly approved the company’s acquisition by phone company Nokia.

The completion of the US$8.1 billion (A$9.2 billion) deal is still subject to certain regulatory approvals, although the acquisition has already passed inspection by US anti-trust regulators.

More than 99 per cent of the total votes cast at the special meeting of shareholder this week, were voted in favour of the adoption of the merger agreement.

Navteq makes digital mapping software for consumer and corporate applications. It software and devices are found in personal cars as well as fleet vehicles and trucks.

While the company’s heritage is in navigation systems, it is has become a leader in location-based solutions, which made it attractive to mobile phone maker Nokia.

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Microsoft acquires UK’s Multimap

MICROSOFT has stepped up its search and location-based services efforts through the acquisition of UK-based online mapping innovator Multimap.

The company said the Multimap location and mapping technologies would be used in conjunction with existing Microsoft products like Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services and the recently acquired aQuantive advertising platform.

Microsoft said the technology would likely also be integrated into other products and platforms in the coming years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business,” Microsoft Online Services Group general manager Sharon Baylay said.

Multimap is one of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, and is one of the Top 100 technology companies in the UK. The company will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, as part of the Virtual Earth and Search teams in the Online Services Group.

Multimap chief executive Jeff Kelisky said partnering with Microsoft gave the company new opportunities to build mapping services into new applications.

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Nokia moves on location-based services

NOKIA has made its intentions in the location-based services market emphatically clear, paying US$8.1 billion (A$9.1 billion) to acquire leading navigation systems provider Navteq.

With location-based services among the fastest growing segments of the ICT market and Nokia has nominated it as a strategic cornerstone for future growth in the mobile phone and device arena.

Nokia said that once the acquisition was completed, Navteq would continue to map data platform to other navigation industry players as an independent business unit within Nokia.

“By joining forces with Navteq, we will be able to bring context and geographical information to a number of our internet services with accelerated time to market,” Nokia president and chief executive officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.

“We also look forward to maintaining and enhancing the services and support provided to NAVTEQ's existing and future customers”.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

“Nokia's unique vision for location based services aligns perfectly with Navteq’s vision to enable everyone to find their way to people, places and opportunities on mobile communications devices, cars, desktop computers and in all the other places that are important to them," said Navteq president and chief executive officer Judson Green.

“It's really exciting to imagine what we can achieve by combining our location experience with the resources of a company that has a customer base of more than 900 million people,” he said.

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Nissan pilots intelligent transport system

DRIVERS who get easily frustrated sitting at red traffic lights when there are no other cars around will be happy with research being conducted at Nissan.

The auto-maker has moved to the next stage of its ambitious intelligent transport system (ITS) project that employs vehicle-to-infrastructure communications that allows synchronised communications between vehicles and traffic signals.

The company has started deploying intelligent traffic lights at its Nissan Technical Centre in Kanawaga Prefecture in Japan to collect real-world data from several hundred employee cars participating in the project.

The new traffic system aims to help reduce accidents as well as ease traffic congestion – specifically at traffic light intersections – leading to improved on-the-road fuel consumption.

Two intersecting main roads within the company’s research centre, each with multiple intersections and crosswalks, provide the basic parameters for the ITS experiment.

Nissan has installed standard traffic lights and roadside optical beacons along these test-roads. For specific data to support the development of the navigation program being tested, hundreds of employees’ cars will be equipped with the specially designed vehicle information and communications system units.

Based on traffic volumes, the system will calculate to optimise the timing lapse between crossing pedestrians and the change in traffic-signal.

Under the Nissan Green Program 2010, announced in December 2006,
Nissan is working to develop the new technologies to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and the ITS project in Kanagawa contributes by reducing traffic congestion.

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IBM to jam with auto industry

IBM will collaborate with the US-based Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) to hold the first-ever Automotive Supplier Jam — an online dialogue on automobile industry's general strategy, future, and opportunities for innovation.

It is the first time IBM has targeted the auto industry for a consulting Jam. Telematics and other in-car electronics are expected to form a big part of the 72-hour discussion.

“Jams” are moderated forums where a select audience can engage in an online discussion for a concentrated time period. IBM says the intensity of the online has surface, cultivate, and discuss new ideas, to collaborate on developing those ideas, and to drive new kinds of business innovation.

The Automotive Supplier Jam, a cooperative effort between OESA, IBM, and companies within the automotive industry, will be held for 72 consecutive hours from Wednesday.

Jams can help organisations achieve specific objectives like creating new methods for collaborating with partners or uncovering best industry practices. They enable participants to create operations from strategy and produce actionable ideas for general industry innovation.

The Automotive Supplier Jam will leverage tools and processes developed by IBM as part of its Jamming initiatives, including IBM Research's eClassifier – a real-time text analysis and data mining tool that can highlight emerging trends and distil actionable results. The tool lets tens of thousands of participants engage in the process.


Moderators play a critical role in driving the discussion and the Automotive Supplier Jam will include Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, General Motors worldwide purchasing vice-president Bo Andersson, and Toyota North America senior vice-president Gary Convis.

“The Automotive Supplier Jam will enable an innovative and democratic process where, without hierarchy, people across the industry can have the opportunity to come together to present and evaluate ideas,” said OESA president Neil De Koker.

“We expect this event to engage, empower and stimulate thousands of participants, with the ultimate goal of turning ideas into action on critical issues related to transforming the automotive industry.”

After the Jam concludes, IBM and OESA will analyze the discussion threads to identify specific, actionable ideas and strategies that individual companies can apply to their businesses.


Since 2001, IBM has used Jams to involve its more than 300,000 employees around the world in far-reaching exploration and problem-solving. During IBM's 2006 InnovationJam — the largest IBM online brainstorming session ever held — IBM brought together more than 150,000 people from 104 countries and 67 companies. As a result, 10 new IBM businesses were launched with seed investment totaling $100 million.

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Melbourne pit stop for key telematics standards

THE principal players in the global vehicle navigation market have met in Melbourne under the umbrella of the International Standards Organisations (ISO) to thrash out key standards to improve the appeal and useability of navigation systems.

The meeting was hosted by Intelematics Australia, a subsidiary of the RACV and a globally respected OEM provider of telematics programs in the Asia pacific region.

Though founded in the late 1990s, Intelematics Australia started to gain much higher profile in the past 12 months as local consumers have started moved – in their hundreds of thousands – to purchase navigation systems. There are more than a dozen brands active in the Australian market, including Navman, Garmin and TomTom.

Much of the standardisation effort at the Melbourne meeting focused on bringing dynamic content into navigation platforms, including real time information like road conditions, tourist information, and periodic updates to the digital road map.

It is planned the architecture is also planned to support public safety information announcements such as road closures due to bushfires.

“In a small market like Australia, we need international standards to create the scale required to invest in advanced automotive technologies like navigation. Even with standards, Australia has been late in adopting navigation,” said Intelematics chief executive Adam Game.

Intelematics is currently rolling out a national digital traffic information service that will add electronic traffic avoidance capability to navigation systems.

“Australia is virtually the last developed country in which navigation systems are not connected to real-time road network information,” Mr Game said.

“Yet as a result of the standardisation process, virtually all navigation vendors active in the Australian market have products that are technically ready to receive our broadcast.”

The Melbourne meeting was a get together technically referred to as International Standards Organisation, Technical Committee 204, Working Group 3.

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