Athena wins SBIR Phase II award from US Air Force for GPS interference filter

New Filter Eliminates Dozens of Simultaneous Interference Sources

Gainesville, FL - September 8, 2003 - The Athena Group, a leading provider of high-performance, low-power signal processing products, today announced they have been awarded a $750,000 US Air Force contract for the next generation of the Athena Digital Excision Processor Technology (ADEPT™) family, the AD-10200, for GPS receivers. The AD-10200 will be capable of dynamically eliminating dozens of interfering signals, enabling GPS receivers to maintain quality of service without exotic multi-element antenna technology. The Air Force’s funding for ADEPT ensures the commercial availability of the most robust GPS receiver technology for all users, both military and civilian.

By protecting all current and planned civilian and military codes (C/A, P(Y), and M) against common interference sources, the ADEPT product line will enable improved reliability for all GPS receivers. Under the US Air Force SBIR contract, Athena will reduce the power of the AD-10200 to less than 100 mW when processing military GPS signals. It is expected that the power optimized AD-10200 will operate at a third of that power level when processing civilian (C/A-code) GPS signals. This low-power operating characteristic will enable improved reliability for all GPS receivers, including hand-held units.

"There are numerous, well-publicized cases where GPS service has been denied over wide areas by narrowband interference from unintentional sources such as television transmitters and satellite dishes," says Dr. Jon Mellott, Chief Technology Officer of Athena. "From transportation to public safety, GPS service has become an important part of the national information infrastructure. ADEPT will enable GPS receivers to operate reliably in the presence of the most common types of signal interference, making it must-have technology for the next generation of GPS receivers."

Current ADEPT solutions are supplied as semiconductor intellectual property (IP), suitable for integration with new and existing GPS receiver designs. Athena can also provide turnkey implementation services for customer-specific ADEPT solutions.

Athena IP Products
Each ADEPT core package is delivered as a firm core optimized to any customer-specified library. Included with each core are verification suites, timing and simulation models, and comprehensive documentation. Customization, integration, and hardening services are available.

The entire line of Athena semiconductor intellectual property is designed for efficient implementation and rapid delivery. Athena's wholly automated implementation and verification methodology produces synchronous, testable IP cores of the highest quality. All Athena IP cores achieve a score of 95% or better on the OpenMore scale of IP reusability.

About The Athena Group, Inc.
The Athena Group, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida licenses signal processing technology that delivers breakthrough performance, reduced area, and reduced power consumption in a broad range of SoC products. Athena technology is ideal for leading edge applications such as secure e-commerce, wireless communications, and video compression. In addition to signal processing acceleration functions for SoC integration, Athena also produces a full line of application level solutions.

Athena was founded in 1986 and is privately held.

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