Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
ORCA Technologies’ GS-101ORCA Technologies LLC, a recent start-up company — but one whose principals come with a long background in GPS timing instrumentation — has introduced the Model GS-101 GPS/IRIG-B Synchronized Time Code Generator (STCG).
By Glen Gibbons
SkyTraq’s Venus634LPTaiwanese fabless GNSS manufacturer SkyTraq Technology, Inc., has announced a one-square-centimeter GPS OEM receiver, the Venus634LP.
The L1 GPS C/A-code, receiver includes 51 acquisition channels and 14 tracking channels and is also capable of processing satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) signals. Measuring 10 x 10 x 1.2 millimeters, the Venus634LP integrates LNA, SAW filter, RF front-end, GPS baseband, 0.5ppm TCXO, RTC crystal, LDO regulator, and passive components in an LGA44 package with 0.8 pitch.
By Glen Gibbons
MT ManagerXsens Technologies B.V. has announced the release of a new version of the MT Software Development Kit (SDK) and new firmware for all of the Enschede, The Netherlands¬based company’s inertial motion trackers: MTi, MTi-G and MTx.
The software and firmware contain predefined settings for optimized orientation output in several specific application areas. Applications relying on data output for orientation, stabilization, or navigation will benefit.
By Glen Gibbons
Fastrax Software GPS stackFinland’s Fastrax oy, which introduced a new generation of OEM GPS receivers earlier this year, has added a software receiver to its line-up.
Based on the Fastrax’s iSuite3 embedded software architecture used in the company’s iTrax03, and iTrax130) series of GPS receivers, the software receiver is designed for easy porting to a portable device’s central processing unit (CPU).
By Glen Gibbons
The European Space Agency has extended until May 16 the deadline for paper abstracts for oral and poster presentations for NAVITEC 2008, ESA’s fourth workshop on satellite navigation user equipment technologies.
This year’s theme is "GNSS User Technologies in the Sensor Fusion Era." Galileo receiver technologies and experimentation are a special focus of this year’s event.
The workshop will take place from December 10-12 at the European Space and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
By Inside GNSS
Santa Clara, California–based wireless/wired communications semiconductor manufacturer Atheros Communications, Inc., which acquired u-Nav Microelectronics last December, has announced its second-generation, single-chip GPS receiver, the AR1511, and companion ORION 3.0 software suite.
By Glen Gibbons
Nearly 30 years after the first launch of a GLONASS spacecraft, Russia is moving to add code division multiple access (CDMA) signals to the frequency division multiple access (FDMA) format that has set the world’s second-oldest global satellite navigation system apart from GPS and other systems under development.
A February 15, 2008, government decree on new GLONASS requirements calls for open CDMA signals with a binary offset carrier or BOC (2,2) signal structure centered at 1575.42 MHz and a BOC (4,4) signal centered at 1176.45 MHz — essentially corresponding to the center points of GPS signals at the L1 and L5 frequencies and nearby Galileo and Compass signals.
An additional GLONASS FDMA signal will be located at L3 frequencies (1197.648–1212.255 MHz), just below the GPS M-code at L2.
Russia will implement the new signals on the next-generation GLONASS-K satellites, with the first launch currently expected in late 2010 with flight testing the following year.
By Glen Gibbons
The European Satellite Navigation Competition (Galileo Masters), now in its fifth year, is seeking the best ideas for satellite navigation applications from companies, entrepreneurs, research institutes, universities, and individuals.
This year’s contest will culminate with an awards ceremony in the Munich Residenz, Munich, Germany on Tuesday, October 21, 2008.
Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite, General DynamicsOn Wednesday (April 16), a U.S. Air Force team successfully launched the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), an experimental satellite designed to monitor the ionosphere and predict conditions that would disturb radio communications, including GNSS signals.
The satellite was ultimately deployed from a Pegasus rocket following an air launch from a Lockheed L-1011 that had taken off from Kwajalein Atoll in the mid-Pacific Ocean. First transmissions from the spacecraft were acquired shortly after it reached orbit.
By Glen Gibbons
NovAtel Inc. has launched its new GL1DE technology, the latest enhancement to the Calgary, Alberta, Canada–based company’s high-precision OEMV GNSS product line.
GL1DE is a relative pseudorange/delta-phase filter enhancement available in the coompany’s OEMV 3.400 firmware. The new technology is targeted for agricultural guidance applications in which pass-to-pass repeatability and elimination of position “jumps” is critical.
By Glen Gibbons
Hemisphere GPS has released an OEM development kit for its Eclipse dual-frequency GPS receiver technology.
Development kits allow product designers and system integrators to more easily access and test all of the available features on an Eclipse board, simplifying the effort needed to reach a proof of concept and shortening the time required to bring a product to market.
By Glen Gibbons
TI NavLink 6.0Texas Instruments’s (TI’s) announcement of its NaviLink 6.0 (NL5500) with integrated GPS, Bluetooth, and FM may presage the company’s expanded focus for application markets beyond cell phone handsets.
By Glen Gibbons
L3/Interstate Electronic Corporation (IEC) has scored a key contract win with today’s (March 17) announcement of the company’s selection by Alliant TechSystems, Inc. (ATK) to supply IEC’s new TruTrak Evolution GPS receiver for the Army’s Precision Guidance Kit (PGK) program.
By Glen Gibbons
