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Atmel and Thales Navigation Sign Technology Agreement to Build Advanced, Affordable, GPS Chipsets

San Jose, California, and Santa Clara, California (ots/PRNewswire)
- Product Plans Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas January 2005
Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) and Thales navigation business
have signed a technology agreement, under which the two companies
will partner in the development and marketing of state-of-the-art
global positioning system (GPS) chipsets, sub-systems and associated
software. Under the agreement Atmel will sell a GPS chipset solution
currently used in the Magellan(R) eXplorist(TM) recreational GPS
handheld from Thales which was jointly developed by Atmel and Thales.
The two companies expect that the combination of Thales' GPS
expertise and Atmel's manufacturing acumen will allow them to offer
superior GPS chipset solutions at ultra-competitive prices. Atmel
expects to offer a variety of GPS chipsets by mid 2005.
"Devices employing GPS for navigation and location-based services
are growing in number, and an inexpensive chipset such as this will
open new markets," said Will Strauss, president of market watcher
Forward Concepts(R) (Tempe, AZ). "And, by offering the GPS chip both
as a chipset and as IP, Atmel's customers will be able to develop
system-on-a-chip products faster since they will have immediate
access to full GPS functionality."
Thales will also use the GPS baseband ICs to develop single-board
GPS sub-systems for integration with in-vehicle navigation systems,
and software that they will market to OEM customers in the
automotive, avionics, asset tracking and other markets. This
partnership enables the companies to work together to offer Thales
GPS mapping and other user interface software to Atmel customers.
These new products will broaden and improve Atmel's offering of GPS
solutions which have been available for years.
The Thales chipset will also be available to Atmel customers as an
intellectual property (IP) block for use in Atmel's SiliconCITY(TM)
custom ASICs.
According to Hubert Canuet, General Manager and Vice President of
Thales Navigation's OEM Business Unit, "Thales believes that by
partnering with Atmel in the OEM IC market, we will achieve a
substantially higher market penetration in a relatively short amount
of time. In-vehicle navigation systems are expected to reach USD$10
billion by 2008 and GPS-based asset tracking systems are expected to
generate USD$1.3 billion in 2008(1). Our goal is to exploit this
rapid growth and to work with partners like Atmel to become the
provider of choice for GPS chipset solutions."
Bill Gross, Atmel's ASSP Marketing Manager, says of the agreement,
"By combining Thales' superior GPS IP with our own IC foundry
capability, we expect to play a major role in bringing down the cost
of a complete GPS system while making GPS a feature of many handheld
devices. We believe this will open new markets for GPS technology and
will accelerate the already rapid growth in the traditional GPS
sectors."
Atmel and Thales will be exhibiting this technology at the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV January 6-9, 2005. The
Magellan booth will be located in the South Hall, booth # 31256.
About Atmel
Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory
and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's
broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is
able to provide the electronics industry with complete system
solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications,
computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere
You Are(SM).
NOTE: Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, and others, are
registered trademarks, and Everywhere You Are(SM) and others are
trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and
product names may be trademarks of others.
About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group serving
the defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The group
employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.6
billion Euros in 2003. Thales' navigation business is one of the
world's leaders in positioning, navigation and guidance equipment
with global operations. Thales markets its Magellan(R) brand GPS
solutions in the consumer electronics, recreation, and automotive
markets, and its GPS and GNSS professional products in the survey,
GIS/Mapping, and OEM markets. Through its joint venture with Hertz,
Thales has developed the Hertz NeverLost(R) vehicle navigation
system. Magellan and eXplorist are trademarks of Thales. Other terms
and product names may be trademarks of others.
    Information:
    Atmel's product information may be retrieved at: www.atmel.com.
    Thales product information may be retrieved at: www.thalesnavigation.com
    Atmel Press Contacts:
     Vicki McCann, Director of Marketing Communications
      Phone: +1-719-540-1724, Email:   vmccann@cso.atmel.com
     Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
      Phone: +33-1-30-60-70-68, Fax:  +49-71-31-67-24-23
      Email:   veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
    Thales Press Contacts:
     Amanda Higgins, Director Corporate Communications
     Phone: +1-408-615-5236, Email:  ahiggins@thalesnavigation.com
    (1) Source: ABI Research
Web site:  http://www.atmel.com

Contact:

Vicki McCann, Director of Marketing Communications, +1-719-540-1724,
or vmccann@cso.atmel.com, or in Europe, Veronique Sablereau,
Corporate Communications Manager - Europe, +33-1-30-60-70-68, or fax:
+49-71-31-67-24-23, or veronique.sablereau@atmel.com, both of Atmel
Corporation; or Amanda Higgins, Director Corporate Communications,
Thales, +1-408-615-5236, or ahiggins@thalesnavigation.com

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