CSR announced that it has reduced the cost of embedded GPS solutions to half. This is made possible by collaboration with Samsung Electro-Mechanics Company (Samsung) said CSR in a press release.
The combined product offerings from CSR and Samsung are based on CSR’s GPS software and Samsung’s mobile hardware. The offerings include location-based services to mobile phones, media players and personal navigation devices. The GPS RF design enables Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) to make their products available in the market sooner and at lesser cost.
UK based CSR provides personal wireless technology with a range of products covering Bluetooth, GPS, FM and Wi-Fi
(IEEE802.11). It caters to companies like Apple, Dell, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, RIM, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TomTom and Toshiba.
ABI Research announced that the market for GPS enabled handsets would generate around $50 billion this year. Further the figure is expected to increase to $100 billion by 2012.
CSR was able to cut costs owing to its software approach which eliminates the need for a dedicated GPS baseband. The cost reduction in the module makes it highly competitive in the market and would help CSR to establish firmly in the high growth market said the company in a statement.
The technical specifications of the 9.8x9.8x2.15 mm Samsung module based on the SiGe Semiconductor SE4120S GPS RF IC includes a complete GPS RF subsystem with voltage regulation, RTC and TCXO, SAW filter and LNA..
CSR’s GPS software used in the Samsung module runs on a typical applications processor, enabling the system to achieve a tracking sensitivity of -159 dBm and it has a cold start acquisition time of less than 40 seconds according to a statement from the companies.
Stuart Strickland, Vice President of CSR’s Location Business Unit said in the press release, “Our software architecture already allows the lowest cost design for embedding GPS in high volume applications and we’ve seen strong interest from tier one mobile handset and consumer electronics companies.”
“By partnering with Samsung, we are now able to completely eliminate a complex, risk-laden, and time-consuming step in the product design and integration process, thus making this lower cost alternative available to a much broader range of customers,” Strickland added.
The companies plan to integrate GPS with CSR’s Bluetooth and FM technologies. CSR announced that it would be demonstrating its software-based GPS technologies at Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona in February 2008.
Commenting on the successful partnership with CSR, Mr. Sakwan Hong, Vice President of Samsung, said, “With the market for location based services set to boom in 2008, it is crucial that our customers are able to keep apace with the demand.”
“Samsung and CSR’s software GPS solution meets customer performance expectations at a substantially lower cost, so it was a natural progression to partner on this GPS module,” he concluded.
Shamila Janakiraman is a ContactCenterSolutions Contributing Editor