CSR SiRFatlasV boosts integration, performance and cost-effectiveness for consumer nav systems

“SiRFatlasV is the next step in the evolution of our mainstream navigation platform, bringing even greater functionality on chip and delivering faster fixes and higher performance than ever before while reducing overall power consumption, system cost and size,” said Kanwar Chadha, chief marketing officer at CSR. “All of this plus the considerable time-to-market advantages of our Synergy connectivity solution make SiRFatlasV the platform of choice for a new generation of mainstream PND and location-aware consumer devices.”

The SiRFatlasV processor combines on a single chip a 500- or 664-MHz ARM11 processor core with vector floating point unit; advanced, autonomous GPS/Galileo baseband DSP core with available SiRFAlwaysFix™ technology, DDR2, Mobile DDR, SD/MMC/MMC+ and NAND flash memory controllers; audio DAC, LCD touch panel controller, video post processing accelerator, USB 2.0 and other connectivity interfaces and a complete power management unit. This high degree of integration reduces parts count and bill of material (BOM) costs, power requirements and PC board size while simplifying design and speeding development and time to market.

“Microsoft is excited to be working with CSR to deliver rich, specialised application experiences on the SiRFatlasV navigation platform,” said Kim Chau, senior partner manager for Windows Embedded at Microsoft Corp. “With SiRFatlasV, CSR has created an optimised and developer-friendly Windows Embedded CE 6.0 platform for mobile navigation, and we look forward to working with CSR to continue to drive innovation and differentiation in this market.”

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is a componentised, real-time operating system that delivers compelling experiences on a wide range of small footprint consumer and enterprise devices. By building on the high performance and highly reliable Windows Embedded CE platform, device makers can bring their device to market quickly and efficiently.

“We are very pleased with the customer and partner response to SiRFatlasV,” said Ahmet Alpdemir, senior vice president for the Automotive/PND business unit of CSR. “AtlasV is already in use by a number of leading original equipment and original device manufacturers, including GlobalSat Technology Corporation, Mango Research Corp., Mobile Devices, Topicon HK Limited and YF International Limited.”

Using CSR Synergy™, the SiRFatlasV processor can be seamlessly integrated with CSR’s audio and connectivity platforms incorporating a broad range of technologies – Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, echo cancellation, noise suppression, FM receive and transmit and more. CSR Synergy ensures that all of these systems work together as a unified platform, enabling technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to coexist in the same system environment without interfering with one another or degrading performance. This simplifies design engineering and helps achieve an overall improvement in the end-user experience.

What’s New in SiRFatlasV

SiRFatlasV continues to challenge industry boundaries by increasing performance and functionality while reducing power consumption. Not only has the SiRFatlasV reduced its overall power consumption by 10 percent over SiRFatlasIV, it does so while integrating a number of external components thus reducing the overall bill of materials.

“While other SoCs in this market have incorporated various combinations of GPS, an ARM core and power management components, SiRFatlasV combines all three to achieve a very high level of integration,” said Conlan Ma, Director of Product Management in CSR’s Automotive/PND Business Unit. “Together with CSR’s connectivity and audio platforms and Synergy software, manufacturers are able to build connected PND platforms using SiRFatlasV that enable clear hands-free calling and seamless data connectivity via a mobile phone.”

In addition to power and cost savings, the SiRFAlwaysFix technology employs proprietary power management and orbital (ephemeris) prediction algorithms to achieve significantly faster times to first fix by always keeping the SiRFatlasV in a hot-start condition without the GPS receiver having to be at full power. SiRFAlwaysFix employs CSR’s new SiRFHibernation technology, which is able to completely cut off DRAM power when the system enters standby mode. Together, SiRFAlwaysFix and SiRFHibernation enable manufacturers to achieve longer battery life with a same battery or the same battery life with a smaller battery while boosting GPS performance and improving the user experience.

With the new, faster 644-MHz ARM11 core speed, the SiRFatlasV is capable of handling heavier application loading to deliver a better user experience when performing routing calculations, displaying pseudo-3D graphics, multimedia playback and other processor-intensive functions.

New support for DDR2-400 memory, the most popular memory technology in use today, means manufacturers can now use the low-cost commodity memory chips in their designs. Similarly, the new 8-bit NAND flash memory controller interface with 12/24-bit configurable BCH HW ECC support allows the use of less expensive 3x-nm raw multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, reducing BOM cost.

The new, on-chip audio DAC and power management unit eliminate the need for external components, reducing overall power consumption and BOM costs, simplifying design and shrinking PC board size. Single stereo and mono audio outputs each offer a 93-db S/N ratio and 70-db total harmonic distortion (“A” weighted). The power management unit features two switching DC/DC sources for the SiRFatlasV core and DRAM, plus four low-noise, high power supply ripple rejection, low-drop-out sources for I/O, peripheral, PLL, analog and RF power.