CSR pins future on location platforms

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CSR pins future on location platforms

Taps into huge range of data sources to make mobile navigation more accurate and usable, and extends architecture to the car

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 2 November, 2011

READ MORE: CSR | Location | Semiconductor | GPS

UK-based chip designer CSR has never managed to dominate a segment in the way it did Bluetooth, but it has invested in several other technologies which underpin the new generation of handset silicon, in a bid for a renewed stardom. Its key activities now center on location awareness, following its 2009 acquisition of SiRF, and it is using that architecture to push beyond the phone and into automotive systems.

Its SiRFstarV architecture underlies two new platforms, one for mobile applications and one for in-car infotainment systems, an important area of growth for traditional handset technology players. The SiRFusion location platform promises a much improved user experience for a range of mobile applications, says the firm, while the SiRFprimaII platform aims to enhance the auto navigation experience.

GPS is only one aspect of the SiRFstarV architecture, which also collects real time data from other satellite positioning systems, notably the EU's Galileo, Russia's Glonass and the Compass satellites. It also takes information from Wi-Fi and cellular radios, and multiple MEMS sensors, including accelerometers, gyros and compasses.

All this data is then combined with a huge range of information held in the cloud to make the results more accurate and more understandable, indoors and outdoors, as well as relating them to the user's context. Sources include ephemeris data, mapping, base station and Wi-Fi access point databases, and other cloud sources, all of this amalgamated by the new SiRFusion platform. This is a self-learning, end-to-end system for combining multiple radio signals, sensor inputs and data sources in real time, which also taps into crowdsourcing techniques to add to its knowledge. Mobile products supporting SiRFstarV and SiRFusion will be able to move between outdoor and indoor navigation seamlessly, CSR told EETimes.

The SiRFPrimaII platform is designed to bring location features currently found in high end, premium in-vehicle systems to the mass market. It works with the SiRFDRive dead reckoning software, and can navigate even in tunnels or urban canyons. The chip is integrated with new 3D graphics and video accelerators from Imagination Technologies, and with the ARM Cortex -A9 application processor to support a range of third party location apps.