SiRFprima GPS receiver platform boosts sensitivity, adds 3D acceleration

If you've bought a GPS unit in the past year or two there are decent odds it's based on the SiRFstar III chipset, which has been about as good as it gets since it arrived on the scene a few years ago. Now there's a new chip on the block, SiRFprima, which could have GPS aficionados kicking those SiRFstar III units to the curb. The unit boasts "industry leading" GPS performance, and is the first of its ilk to be able to work with GPS and Galileo signals simultaneously. InstantFixII -- which promises 5 second start times -- is built in as well, along with 3D acceleration for the fancy new maps hitting the scenes, and the capability to work with external devices like touch screens, DVD players, video cameras and so forth. While no one feature is revolutionary, the fact that SiRFprima will be wrapping up all these features into a cute little package for GPS manufacturers to slap into their units without a worry -- which should start happening in the second quarter of this year -- is surely cause for celebration.

[Bevon Findley @ Feb 9th 2008 8:05PM]

I hereby Post first!! under article 125 section 4 paragraph 6 ! Any glumerterians failing to claim posting first after doing thereof,so gives up that post or any claim of post thereafter on the thread thus in dispute!!

[matthew @ Feb 9th 2008 8:17PM]

wrapping a "first" post in fancy wording doesn't make it any less gay

[Bevon Findley @ Feb 9th 2008 8:23PM]

i know i saw it early, thought id use it. besides this camera is gay

[matthew @ Feb 9th 2008 8:50PM]

this isnt' the camera post.. its the GPS post. absolutely not gay

[Derek @ Feb 9th 2008 8:51PM]

First of it's ilk?

[paul34 @ Feb 9th 2008 8:59PM]

"Ilk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ilk is a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary."



Hmm....

[Derek @ Feb 9th 2008 9:01PM]

ilk, not Ilk. And I just found out that it is a way of saying kind. Although it is a quite uncommon way.

[Christopher @ Feb 9th 2008 9:28PM]

Wow, the intelligent commenters are out tonight.

;)

I think I may actually get a receiver with one of these chipsets in when they come to market, my old SirfSTAR III-based receiver doesn't always cut it in urban areas for accurate log-taking (and now I've started doing OSM stuff (streetmapping) it's sometimes not accurate at all).

Here's hoping that the new chipset devices come to market soon :)

[thethirdmoose @ Feb 9th 2008 10:26PM]

Can GPS even track in 3D?

[tange1 @ Feb 9th 2008 10:59PM]

Well GPS does latitude, longitude and altitude already so thats 3 dimensions. I'm not sure what is new about that.

[Clinton @ Feb 9th 2008 11:40PM]

"3D acceleration" refers to the chip's increased support/handling of 3D graphics. It has nothing to do with the actual tracking process.

[p3ngwin @ Feb 9th 2008 11:46PM]

they're talking about accelerating 3d graphics so that the navigation ONLY devices (so that's not mobile phones), can have the benefit of some upgraded visual update performance.
mobile phones have been having co-processors for a while now that speed up the graphics capabilities and therefore make the scrolling and refresh rate of the navigation software a pleasant experience.
now with this new GPS chip, it incorporates such graphics acceleration that otherwise wouldn't be possible, because navigation units DON'T use mobile phone chips.
i only hope that there will be a version WITHOUT 3d acceleration so that it can be included as a module in mobile phones. would be madness to include the 3d part and have duplicate hardware n a single device.

[Robert in Texas @ Feb 10th 2008 12:42AM]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Everybody's wrong. The "3D acceleration" has nothing to do with the graphics -- that's always handled by a different chip. This chip only deals with positional information. The "3D acceleration" refers to accepting input from accelerometers so as to keep the fix from wandering when the GPSr is not moving due to the higher sensitivity involved. It helps squash false movement from multipath by sensing that the GPSr is motionless when it is not moving. It will also keep a proper fix when moving through tunnels and the like when you lose the satellite signal by sensing your direction of movement (well, as long as the GPSr manufacturer includes the necessary accelerometers for it to get input from) and keeping the track on course. It has nothing to do with graphics! It's all about refining the positional data to make it even more precise.

[Clinton @ Feb 10th 2008 12:45AM]

Sorry, Robert, but for once I did read the article and it primarily mentions graphics:

SiRF just introduced SiRFprima, a new super sensitive GPS receiver platform combined with hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and multimedia encoding and decoding engines designed to significantly enhance user experience for location applications and media rich content.

[Kurian @ Feb 10th 2008 2:51AM]

According to analytical geometry to locate a point having n coordinates, you need n+1 objects of reference, each of their locations measured in n coordinates.

GPS works under the presumption that you are within the spheres of radius of detection of 3 satellites and you are ON the Circumference of a of a 4th sphere, that is the earth.

The altitude detection is by some other hax.

[Alex Willmer @ Feb 10th 2008 4:55AM]

@Kurian, That's almost correct. Four satellites are needed to get a GPS fix with latitude, longitude, altitude. If a GPS receiver can see only three satellites, it can fake a fourth at the Earth's centre.

A three satellite fix, as you say, assumes the Earth is a perfect sphere and that the receiver is at zero altitude. Neither of these assumptions is perfect, so three satellite fixes are very inaccurate, compared to four.

Incidentally GPS isn't nearly as accurate for altitude, as it is for lat/lon. Most people I know don't trust it. Alex

[Robert in Texas @ Feb 10th 2008 5:09AM]

Never mind.

http://www.sirf.com/PressRoom/PRFileDownLoad.aspx?dwfid=154

The SiRFprima platform includes an ultra-high-speed, multifunction processor comprised of an advanced ARM11 core, a high-performance location engine that supports both GPS and
Galileo satellite systems and an on-chip DSP. It also includes hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and multimedia encoding and decoding engines based on the gaming-grade PowerVR MBX 3D
graphics accelerator core, vertex geometry processor and PowerVR MVED1 video encode/decode accelerator from Imagination Technologies.

[Anil @ Feb 10th 2008 11:32AM]

Actually, the reason you need four satellites is not really based on geometry. You need three satellites to determine your X, Y, and Z, but GPS measures distances based on time of flight of the signal. This relies on the fact that your reciever clock is in sync with the sattelite clocks, which of course it is not. The fourth sattelite is used to estimate the clock error so that a more accurate positioning solution can be determined.

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Feb 10th 2008 12:44PM]

Just in time for the 2nd gen iPhone!

[Johan S @ Feb 10th 2008 1:03PM]

I wonder if the nuvi phone has this built in.

[V @ Feb 10th 2008 8:55PM]

So what devices will this chip be found on? Hasn't Garmin, for example, already revealed much of it's GPS line up for the year at CES?

[hnkelley @ Feb 11th 2008 2:38AM]

Will the Garmin Nuviphone (http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/30/garmin-gets-official-with-its-nuvifone/) have this new chip? (I hope, I hope!)