GNSS Chip simultaneously supports GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, SBAS and BeiDou

Charles Abraham, Broadcom Vice President & General Manager, GPS, comments: "Broadcom's new GNSS chip with BeiDou support provides OEMs with a cost-effective, low-power solution to deliver enhanced positioning capabilities for challenging city environments. Drawing on Broadcom's long history of GNSS innovation, our new platform improves the navigation experience of smartphone users in most regions of the world and unlocks new location-aware applications."

According to Gartner, Market Share Analysis: Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 1Q13, over 226 million mobile phones were sold to end users in Asia in Q1 2013, increasing the region's share of global mobile phones to 53.1%. Smartphone adoption is increasing, with most end users identifying location and mapping as key requirements.

Reducing the "time to first fix" Broadcom's new BCM47531 GNSS SoC allows smartphones to quickly establish location and rapidly deliver mapping data. Broadcom's tri-band tuner enables the simultaneous support of five constellations, allowing for position calculations based on measurements from any of 88 satellites. By allowing use of any combination of satellites, users experience more accurate and consistent location performance (especially in urban and mountainous environments), without having to reconfigure and hop between bands. Additionally, the BCM47531 features best-in-class Assisted GNSS data available worldwide from Broadcom's hosted reference network, and advanced digital signal processing for interference rejection that enables satellite signal search and tracking during LTE transmission.

Leveraging Broadcom's connectivity solutions including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Smart, Near Field Communications, Instant Messaging System and handset inertial sensor data, the BCM47531 offers the best indoor/outdoor location.The BCM47531 platform is available with Broadcom's Location Based Services technology. This provides satellite assistance data to the device and provides an initial fix time within seconds, instead of the minutes that may be required to receive orbit data from the satellites themselves.                                                                           

The BCM47531 is available now for sampling.