Air Semiconductor has supplied its first customers in Japan with its single-chip GPS receivers.
"This means that the company has met its shipment target for first samples and," said Air.
“Proving our first product works is a major milestone for the company,” said Stephen Graham, co-founder and v-p marketing at Air. “I am really pleased with the initial traction we have in the digital camera market and supplying working chips on schedule validates our technology.”
The Airwave-1 chip is an 'Always-On' GPS receiver which runs off just 1mA while continuously tracking the user’s location and consequently can also provide instant location updates.
The first customers are digital camera manufacturers who will use the continuous location to geotag (location-stamp) photographs the instant they are taken.
According to Tom Arran, GPS analyst at IMS Research, adding location data tags to digital images is likely to be a growing application for GPS.
"With the emergence of geotagging we expect GPS to become a common feature in the camera market with a CAGR of over 100% in the next five years. The Airwave-1 chip is well positioned to address this market as it meets the unique GPS design requirements for the camera environment," said Arran.
Founded in 2006, Air is a fabless semiconductor company located in Swindon.