With new technology being released today by Sirf Technology, you can expect navigation systems in all sorts of consumer electronics devices, including the smallest of cell phones.
The San Jose, Calif.-based maker of global positioning system (GPS) chips has unveiled SiRFstar IV, with a lot of new features that will upgrade the capabilities of GPS systems.
The new architecture will reduce battery usage dramatically. That has been the Achilles heel of the technology, since GPS devices constantly try to receive satellite signals to verify their exact locations, said Kanwar Chadha, Sirf's founder, in an interview. The devices will be much smaller than past modules with the GPS chips.
The changes mean it will be possible to put GPS into more kinds of devices besides car navigation units or big and power-hungry cell phones. Now smaller phones and devices such as digital cameras, camcorders and other things should be able to use the GPS technology too.
The devices consume 20 times less power than they used to. Much like a phone operating on standby, the chips maintain an always-on location awareness without a huge drain on battery life. They can also get a fix on your location in a much shorter amount of time. In the past, you had to wait several minutes sometimes before the devices could get a fix on enough satellites to triangulate on their exact locations.
The new designs are more tolerant of interference from other devices, such as cell phone radios, and should work better when you're surrounded by skyscrapers in urban canyons.
The first products carrying the new chips should be available in 2010. Chadha started Sirf in 1995 and CSR, a Bluetooth chip maker, bought it for $136 million earlier this year.
"This is going to make GPS into an everyday things with less than a $5 cost," Chadha said. "It can be ubiquitous."
[photo credit: bgtop.net]