Helsinki, Finland; Andover, Massachusetts; and Ottawa, Canada (Vocus) January 29, 2009
Fastrax, a pioneering supplier of high performance GPS receivers, GPS software solutions and tracking systems for location-aware devices, and SiGe Semiconductor, a leading global supplier of products that are enabling wireless multimedia in a wide variety of computing, entertainment and mobile systems, announced today that Fastrax has selected SiGe’s SE4120 to power its Software GPS solution.
As a result of the collaboration, the Fastrax Software GPS and SiGe Semiconductor’s SE4120 radio front-end makes available a high performance GPS solution, complimented with a reference design to enable easy integration by third parties. The reference design is also available as a turnkey solution in the Fastrax iT900 RF module. This combined offering converts the GPS radio frequency (RF) signal into a digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal that is processed by Fastrax Software GPS solution. By deploying SiGe’s IC, Fastrax Software GPS solution will provide the best user experience in a range of applications with a navigation sensitivity as high as -163 dBm.
The software-based approach is expected to increase the speed of adoption of GPS functionalities beyond the high-end cell phones. Target platforms include personal navigation devices (PNDs), mobile internet devices (MIDs), ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), personal media players (PMPs), smartphones, digital cameras and laptops.
While traditional GPS solutions require the integration of a GPS specific baseband, making the design more complex and adding to the cost, a software-based solution allows faster time-to-market with less costs and more adjustable features. With Fastrax Software GPS the GPS functionality can easily be managed and customized to be fully optimized for each specific device and application.
“We are always looking for ways to improve our offering and want to drive the GPS technology development. When combining Fastrax software GPS with SiGe’s SE4120 we can deliver exceptionally high tracking sensitivity of -163 dBm, which exceeds all known solutions available in the market. We are now raising the bar on system sensitivity,” explains Kim Kaisti, co-founder and VP of Business Development at Fastrax. “SiGe’s field proven leadership in GPS RF IC’s, system knowledge and support was a significant driver to select them as one of our technology partners.”
“Both SiGe and Fastrax focus on high-quality, low-power and high-sensitivity devices for reliable performance and stable GPS services. With Fastrax deploying our GPS solutions we have helped to build a platform that offers improved performance and opens up a whole new world of location-aware applications. The new solution will initially use our SE4120L or SE4120S devices and will support all known operating systems including all Microsoft
