CSR plc. a leading provider of GPS-powered location platforms, today introduced the SiRFstarIV GSD4e GPS location processor, the newest member of the recently launched SiRFstarIV architecture, an innovation that promises to redefine the meaning of “location awareness” for mobile devices. Building upon the SiRFstarIV architecture’s high-performance and micro-power capabilities, the GSD4e adds a built-in CPU and innovations such as SiRFGeoRecov™ technology that are optimized to ensure continuous location awareness in a new breed of digital cameras, portable game consoles, wearable platforms and other consumer devices, without loading the host processor.
Leading module vendors worldwide, including Vincotech, Navman Wireless, Kyocera, Mitsumi and SEMCO, are designing modules with the GSD4e in Q4 2009, accelerating time to market for SiRFstarIV-enabled consumer products.
The GSD4e’s innovative adaptive accuracy and SiRFGeoRecov technologies make it possible to instantly geo-tag images or videos with a camera or camcorder and improve the accuracy as better GPS information becomes available. It also enables people to locate social networking friends on a smartphone, track a jogging course with a wearable device, perform location-based searches with a laptop or netbook or find their way through buildings and urban canyons with a pedestrian navigation system.
It can do all these things in everyday environments and in many cases, even if the device has been turned off for weeks or months. Unlike other GPS solutions on the market today that many times fail to provide any location fix at all, the GSD4e ensures that devices are on the “location grid,” even in extremely low signal conditions. And the GSD4e’s sophisticated motion-sensing algorithms ensure advanced power management and stable, accurate positioning, even when standing still.
Gopinath explains that the GSD4e has built-in circuitry and temperature adaptive software that allows it to replace a temperature compensated crystal oscillator with a low-cost crystal, thus enabling bill of materials conscious customers to design GPS into their products with the lowest BOM cost in the market today.
The GSD4e combines RF receiver and integrated LNA, baseband circuitry, switcher and low-current LDOs on a single chip, and requires only five to six external passive components and a single SAW to provide a complete solution that occupies less than 25 square millimeters, including switcher parts.
The SiRFstarIV Advantage
The SiRFstarIV architecture core is comprised of a high-performance GPS location engine, smart location sensor interface, adaptive micro-power manager and active jammer remover, which together deliver:
– Twice the search capacity of the industry proven SiRFstarIII™ architecture, resulting in enhanced sensitivity, reduced time-to-fix and improved positional accuracy
– Advanced micro-power management and integrated switched-mode regulation that maintains hot-start conditions with minimal energy
– Intelligent MEMs sensor support (for accelerometers and other sensors) that improves the location experience, enabling greater contextual awareness, more sophisticated energy management and enhanced indoor positional accuracy
– Advanced DSP technology that actively searches for jammers and removes them prior to correlation for maximum GPS performance and design troubleshooting.