Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Encouraged by continuing progress on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Spirent Communications has announced that its GSS8000 simulation system now supports QZSS in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) — reportedly the first RF constellation simulator to do so.
By Glen Gibbons
Two new GPS modules based on the award-winning u-blox 5 engine and the NEO form factor — the NEO5D and NEO5G — have been announced by the Thalwil, Switzerland–based company.
By Glen Gibbons
Neuchâtel, Switzerland–based SpectraTime, a member of the Orolia group, has received a €2.5-million research contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop critical technologies for future space-qualified active maser, a critical component of the ACES (Atomic Clocks Ensemble in Space) scientific program.
By Glen Gibbons
Baseband Technologies, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has announced its GPS/PC Jr, a real-time software GPS receiver IP solution.
By Glen Gibbons
u-blox AG has selected the NavX-NCS, a multi-constellation and multi-frequency GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator from IFEN GmbH, as the Galileo reference for its receiver development and testing.
By Glen Gibbons
Applanix has introduced a major new release of POSPac MMS (Mobile Mapping Suite), its GNSS-aided inertial postprocessing software for mobile mapping and surveying applications.
The new release adds features and functionality for land-based mapping and surveying to the existing suite, making it fully equipped for processing mobile mapping data from the air, sea, and land platforms.
By Glen Gibbons
GMV Aerospace and Defense S.A. has announced its new magicGNSS, a set of software tools that supports a wide variety of GNSS projects and objectives, including service volume simulations, core operational functions (such as orbit, clock, and ionosphere determination and prediction), receiver performance analysis, added-value services including integrity, local augmentation developments, and all related performance and accuracy analyses.
By Glen Gibbons
Quellan Inc., of Santa Clara, California, offers the QHx220 active RF noise canceller for GPS applications.
Like noise cancelling headphones, the QHx220 senses unwanted internal noise and applies an opposite signal to the receive path, using sophisticated high-speed analog techniques integrated on a single one square millimeter, low-power integrated circuit.
According to the company, the canceller provides up to 25dB of cancellation, 360º of phase coverage, and operates on a single 1.8V supply voltage.
By Glen Gibbons
Wi-Sys Communications Inc., based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has launched the WS1551QF L-band + GPS (L1) Quadrifilar Helical Antenna.
An active right-hand circularly polarized, quadrifilar helical antenna, the WS1551QF provides an omni-directional, cardoid radiation pattern, with peak gain optimized at elevation angles between 0° and 40°. The wideband antenna covers both the L-band downlink frequency band (1525 to 1560 MHz) and the GPS (L1) frequency band (1574 to 1576 MHz).
By Glen Gibbons
After nearly a year of silence, Magellan has returned to the OEM GNSS space with the MB 500 GPS/GLONASS/SBAS dual-frequency board — reportedly the first of a series of new products by the long-standing brand.
By Glen Gibbons
u-blox Holding AG has announced that Microsoft Corporation selected its latest positioning engine, u-blox 5, for a new “GPS Locator” USB stick.
The “GPS Locator” USB stick will be bundled with the next release of MapPoint 2009, Microsoft’s business travel and map software package, expected to be on the shelves in August 2008.
By Glen Gibbons
L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC), based in Anaheim, California, has announced its latest miniaturized GPS receiver, the TruTrak Evolution.
A single-board, L1/L2 24-channel secure GPS receiver, the TruTrak Evolution consists of a security module, radio frequency down converter and I/O logic. The receiver employs IEC’s latest key data processor (KDP II) SAASM chipset in the XFACTOR module to provide enhanced GPS security.
By Glen Gibbons
Okay, they’re really serious about open source.
Mobile device manufacturer Openmoko has announced that it will publish the schematics for the company’s Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner mobile phones, further opening its mobile platform to the development community.
u-blox AG, Switzerland, maker of the GPS chip — the u- ANTARIS 4 ATR0635 — used in the Neo FreeRunner, endorsed Openmokos publishing the complete schematics for the GPS chip in the Neo FreeRunner phones.
By Glen Gibbons
