Marvell Enters Licensing Agreement with Trimble for GPS Software Technology

-- Trimble, a leading innovator of advanced positioning technology, and Marvell, an industry leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions, today announced that they have entered into a Global Positioning System (GPS) software technology licensing agreement. With this agreement, Marvell gains direct access to Trimble's full GPS Digital Signal Processor (DSP) software as well as tools for development support and testing, all of which are backed by Trimble's historical leadership and its strong GPS intellectual property portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Access to Trimble's market leading GPS technology complements Marvell's wireless and application processor initiatives for WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, multi-function radio, application processors and cellular processor devices. With this relationship, Marvell strengthens its portfolio to further increase its silicon content in a number of growing markets, including personal navigation devices (PNDs), mobile phones, portable media devices and digital still cameras. The licensing agreement will enable Marvell to provide customers with comprehensive GPS solutions based on innovative architectures that are tailored for high performance and low overall system power consumption.

"GPS is a major driver for today's mobile consumer electronics industry, and is becoming an increasingly common demand from consumers for mobile devices which support a wide range of applications," said Partho Mishra, Vice President of Marvell's Embedded and Emerging Business Unit, Communications and Consumer Business Group. "Our relationship with Trimble fulfills this demand, providing us access to their leading GPS DSP software solutions that complement our rich technology portfolio." 

IDC research predicts navigation devices and systems will reach annual sales revenues of $62 billion by 2012, with PNDs capturing over 75 percent share of the consumer navigation market for the forecast period. (1) 

"This agreement will enable the combination of personal navigation devices with Marvell's innovative application processors to provide state-of-the-art location-based capabilities to consumers," said Bill Dussell, Director of Trimble's Integrated Products, Advanced Devices Group. "With the strong demand today for GPS, we are excited to work with an industry leader such as Marvell and offer our full range of GPS DSP software products." 

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a leader in the development of storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions.  Marvell's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the term "Marvell" refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com.
 
About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Trimble has a worldwide presence with more than 3,600 employees in over 18 countries. For more information visit Trimble's Web site at www.trimble.com.