RFMD® (Nasdaq: RFMD), a leading provider of proprietary radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for wireless communications applications, today announced that the RFMD® GPS™ RF8110 - the Company's new software-based GPS solution - is sampling to initial customers. The RFMD GPS RF8110 is a breakthrough end-to-end solution that enables the integration of high-performance GPS applications in smartphones, wireless PDAs, digital cameras, gaming devices and other cost-sensitive, battery-operated mobile devices.
Until now, mass deployment of GPS in mobile devices has been hindered by the high cost and size of conventional hardware-based GPS implementations. The RFMD GPS RF8110 redefines the boundaries of cost, power and size - enabling accelerated, widespread adoption of GPS in cost-sensitive mobile devices.
The RFMD GPS RF8110 is a highly scalable and flexible solution, allowing it to be optimized for a wide variety of product platforms. The solution eliminates the need for a dedicated baseband ASIC by leveraging the available host processing power and memory resources in feature-rich smartphones, wireless PDAs and other consumer devices. The RFMD GPS RF8110 is based on a mixed-signal CMOS RFIC bundled with RFMD's proprietary core GPS software.
"RFMD is committed to providing leading-edge GPS solutions to enable integration into our customers' next-generation wireless mobile devices," said David Lyon, Vice President of RFMD's Wireless Connectivity Business Unit. "Our initial target platform is Intel Corporation's XScale® processor, which is a leading applications processor in the smartphone and wireless PDA market segments. We have optimized our RFMD GPS RF8110 software for use on the Intel® XScale® family of applications processors, maximizing GPS performance yet minimizing the load on the applications processor."
"RFMD's mobile GPS solution is a step towards making personal navigation and location-awareness a desirable and a must-have feature in mobile devices, and it leverages the Intel XScale® processor's capability to enable and support new and compelling applications," said Todd Altman, Market Development Manager for Intel's Handheld Platforms Group. "The widespread adoption of GPS-based applications in mobile devices requires a platform approach that couples low power and high performance with robust application development. The combination of RFMD's cost-effective GPS solution with Intel's XScale® technology will allow mobile device manufacturers to create differentiated devices."
RFMD GPS RF8110 Benefits
As a software-based solution, the RFMD GPS RF8110 offers scalable performance depending on the required sensitivity, accuracy and end-user application.. The solution supports push-to-fix, Location Based Services (LBS) applications as well as automotive and pedestrian navigation in outdoor and low signal strength environments. The RFMD GPS RF8110 reduces the total bill-of-materials (BOM) and leads to significant cost and size savings. In large volumes, the price of the RFMD GPS RF8110 RFIC bundled with core GPS software is approximately $3.00.
The hardware component of the solution is a mixed-signal RFIC built in 0.18 µm CMOS technology for low power and small size. The RFIC has a hardware accelerator on-chip to offload the system's applications processor and to minimize the data transfer rate to the host CPU. Low power consumption is achieved through various hardware and software-controlled power save modes.
RFMD GPS RF8110 Software Features & Benefits
The RFMD GPS RF8110 software-based architecture allows for the straightforward addition of future functions, enhancements and customer-specific features on an as-needed basis. Designed to be used in "best-in-class" portable devices, this solution can be easily integrated into a variety of leading host platforms powered by ARM®-based applications processors like Intel's XScale® processor, Texas Instrument's OMAP™, Freescale's i.MX and Samsung's S3C. It is operating system agnostic and supports a variety of mobile platforms including Linux, Windows® Mobile 5.0 and Symbian. The RFMD GPS RF8110 supports both autonomous as well as standards-based assisted modes of operation.
RFMD GPS RF8110 Evaluation Kits
To shorten customers' development cycle times, RFMD provides platform-specific hardware and software evaluation kits. Current development kits are based on the Intel PXA270 applications processor and the Windows® CE/Windows® Mobile 5.0 operating system. In addition, kits for Texas Instruments, Freescale and Samsung-based platforms will also be introduced.