Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
As Trimble approaches its 30th anniversary, the company announced that it has passed the billion-dollar mark in annual revenues during 2007.
In a statement of fourth quarter and Fiscal 2007 results released January 29, Trimble reported rvenues of $312.8 million and $1.222 billion, respectively. Net income for fiscal 2007 was up approximately 13 percent, to $117.4 million, compared to net income of $103.7 million in 2006.
By Glen Gibbons
CSR of Cambridge, UK, has announced its successful integration of GPS with cellular measurements to create eGPS (enhanced Global Positioning System) technology capable of providing accurate position information on demand in all environments, as well as availability of a single-chip GPS receiver with embedded Bluetooth and FM radio technologies.
CSR’s CEO, Joep van Beurden, says that the new developments advance his company’s goal of providing eGPS capabilities to cellular phones at an additional goal of less than $1 per unit.
By Glen Gibbons
Spirent Communications plc, Crawley, UK, has announced the availability of two new capabilities for its UMTS Location Test Solution (ULTS) that will affect assisted GPS (A-GPS) implementation in mobile communication devices and location-based services (LBS): enhanced testing of secure user plane (SUPL) and wideband CDMA (WCDMA) signaling conformance testing.
By Glen Gibbons
Antiquated LORAN vacuum tubeThe Bush administration appears to have finally made a long-delayed decision to complete implementation of an enhanced LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) system to serve, in part, as a back-up to GPS.
Late in the drafting process of the Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) budget proposal that went to Congress earlier this week (February 4), officials added language “migrating” the LORAN-C system from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). A $34.5-million budget and 294 positions would take part in the migration.
By Glen Gibbons
The European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) has invited bids on an estimated €500,000 ($732,000), 18-month contract to evaluate and propose refinements in the Galileo signals to optimize the system’s prospects in a multi-system GNSS world.
By Glen Gibbons
NovAtel Inc. will establish grounds sites in Canada to monitor the GIOVE (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) test satellites under a CDN$667,861 (US$671,568) contract recently awarded by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The work includes a parallel cooperative effort to integrate the NovAtel Galileo Test Receiver (GTR), developed for the CSA, into the GIOVE-A Galileo Experimental Sensor Station (GESS), to upgrade the GTR capabilities and to field these GESS stations in Canada.
By Glen Gibbons
NXP Semiconductors launched its first assisted-GPS (A-GPS) chip, the GNS7560, targeting mobile phones and standalone personal navigation devices (PNDs) with the product’s package size of less than nine square millimeters.
By Glen Gibbons
CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) and Motorola have announced launch of an industry group that seeks to promote the integration of GPS and other location technologies to create more robust, continuous positioning capabilities by mobile device users.
By Glen Gibbons
A proposal before the European Parliament’s Industry Committee would abolish the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), turn responsibility for ensuring the Galileo system’s security requirements over to a new Committee on European GNSS Programs, and establish an Interinstitutional Monitoring Group (IMG) consisting of representatives of the parliament, the European Council’s Presidency, and the European Commission (EC).
By Glen Gibbons
Swindon, UK–based start-up company Air Semiconductor is aiming its first OEM GPS product at what it hopes is a sweet spot in the market: geotagging digital camera photos.
And it may be pointing in the right direction, according to a new IMS Research report that predicts a 200 percent cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) for GNSS-aided digital cameras over the next five years.
By Glen Gibbons
NAO Campus schematicThe French engineering consultancy Pole Star SARL has expanded the firm’s development activities with the launch of its first products — NAO City and NAO Campus, designed to improve the robustness of GNSS positioning in urban and indoor environments with a focus on location-based services.
By Glen Gibbons
AGNSS Technique. Nokia graphicFinland’s Nokia, the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones, is investigating use of GLONASS signals in new products that could reach the market in the near future.
By Inside GNSS
IT321Fastrax Ltd. has launched two new GPS OEM receivers, including one with an integrated chip antenna, aimed at designers of mass-market automotive and portable devices.
The Fastrax UC322 incorporates an on-board chip antenna (five millimeters thick) designed to reduce the size from that of typical patch antennas and large separate ground planes, according to the company. Instead, the end device’s printed circuit board functions as part of the antenna.
By Glen Gibbons
