Motorola, working with IBM Microelectronics, has announced a breakthrough technology for adding accurate location sensing to virtually any portable electronics product. The new technology, called 'Motorola Instant GPS', is a self-contained, single-chip, assisted global positioning system (A-GPS) receiver small enough to fit into a wristwatch. Because it is the first truly single-chip GPS solution, Motorola says it is expected to lead to a new generation of portable electronic products such as cameras that time- and location-stamp photos, PDAs with maps and realtime navigation and E-911 compliant cellular phones.
Motorola Instant GPS combines Motorola's GPS design with IBM's leading-edge silicon germanium (SiGe) chip-making technology. The companies worked together to integrate IBM's technology to optimise the design.
"Location awareness is a fundamental human need", said Tim McCarthy, director of positioning systems for Motorola Telematics. "By their very nature, portable consumer electronic devices are always on the move. Knowing your precise location at any instant allows your device to offer a whole range of new applications that will lead to an explosion of growth for location-based services. With this combination of Motorola and IBM technology, portable electronic product designers can now add location awareness as easily as they can add a realtime clock."
"IBM's technology enabled Motorola to reach its performance goal of detecting GPS signals so faint they would be comparable to those received in Chicago from a light bulb burning in Korea," said Walt Lange, associate director for foundry services, IBM Microelectronics. "Our silicon germanium technology can be used to combine the function of many chips into one, helping reduce size and power consumption, while improving performance."
"By using our single-chip solution, manufacturers of portable electronic products are able to minimise risk and time to market, without re-engineering current product designs" added Dave Huntingford, Motorola GPS Marketing Manager. "The Instant GPS chip is a single-chip solution as opposed to alternatives that use two or three chips or require extensive overhead added to the portable's host microprocessor. It is smaller, consumes less power and is much easier to integrate into portable electronic products."
For more information contact Avnet Kopp, 011 809 6100, Arrow Altech Distribution, 011 923 9600, EBV-Electrolink, 021 421 5350.
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