Broadcom Upgrades Its A-GPS Data Service and GPS LTO Product/Service with GLONASS Satellite Support

This service supports two new Broadcom® GPS system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions (announced earlier today) that feature dual constellation support for GPS and GLONASS:

* BCM47511 standalone GPS SoC solution
* BCM2076 super combination (combo) chip featuring integrated Bluetooth and FM tuner functionality.

In addition to this upgraded A-GPS service, Broadcom also announces that it has upgraded its current GPS Long Term Orbit (LTO) data product and service to support the GLONASS constellation starting with today's introduction of the BCM47511 and BCM2076 GPS SoC solutions. LTO extends the usability of GPS and GLONASS assistance data for up to 7 days and ensures the fastest possible fix time in mobile wireless devices. This augmented data service is a key element for realizing the full effectiveness of the GLONASS constellation and nearly doubles the number of satellites that can be used for navigation.

Highlights/Key Points:

* GLONASS is the Russian equivalent to the U.S. GPS system, and is a complementary and alternative satellite navigation system. By adding GLONASS support, the BCM2076 and BCM47511 GPS receivers will have the ability to use an additional 21 GLONASS satellites currently (24 projected in the future), on top of the existing 30 U.S. GPS satellites, nearly doubling the number of satellites that can be used for navigation. In urban areas, many GPS satellites are blocked by buildings, so the additional 21 satellites offered by the GLONASS system will provide significant improvements in location performance and accuracy over currently available GPS receivers.
* LTO data offers network traffic reduction benefits while improving the user experience. GNSS receivers require a current set of GPS and GLONASS orbit data for a satellite's range measurements to be incorporated into a navigation solution. Without LTO, GLONASS orbit data must be refreshed to a mobile wireless device every half hour (a notably shorter period than the 4 hour refresh requirement for GPS orbit data). With LTO, both GLONASS and GPS orbit data is refreshed every 7 days, saving on network traffic and ensuring the best possible navigation performance.
o Wireless devices with LTO functionality can provide an initial fix time within seconds, instead of the minutes that may be required to download orbit data from the satellites themselves.
o In deep urban canyon environments where weak signal conditions often prohibit the refresh of GPS and GLONASS orbit data, LTO becomes a critical element for sustaining high-fidelity GPS/GLONASS navigation performance for users.
o GLONASS orbit data is also supported in Broadcom's Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (AGNSS) server that enables fast, easy wireless downloads for devices with regular network access, or in use cases that don't require the extended performance that LTO allows.
* Broadcom's cutting-edge LTO location infrastructure provides 99.999 percent uptime and uses orbit modeling algorithms, integrity monitoring and operational protocols evolved from its original GPS LTO product, which has been in continuous commercial operation since 2002.
o Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, Broadcom's LTO infrastructure will serve approximately 2.3 billion LTO downloads every month -- a number that will grow on a weekly basis as devices and the use of location-based services both proliferate.
o The Broadcom LTO product is part of the company's Location Based Services (LBS) and currently serves over 180 million mobile wireless devices worldwide -- a figure that will increase as the benefits of GLONASS become enabled by the Broadcom BCM47511 and BCM2076 GPS SoC solutions.
* The BCM47511 SoC solution is Broadcom's latest generation of standalone receivers, featuring both integrated GPS and GLONASS. Since it is pin-for-pin compatible with Broadcom's popular BCM4751 SoC solution, customers can quickly upgrade their products to include GLONASS navigation support.
* The BCM2076 combo chip is a cutting edge Bluetooth + FM + GPS solution for portable and wireless devices that require Bluetooth, GPS, and a FM receiver/transmitter. It offers audio, Bluetooth 4.0 and improved audio compression that reflects Broadcom's ongoing focus to improve the user experience. The BCM2076 combo chip is backwards compatible with Broadcom's popular BCM2075 Bluetooth + FM receiver/transmitter.