Why Software-Based GPS Is Great for Location-Based IoT Applications

At the Cadence booth at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we’re featuring a demo of a software-based GPS receiver from Galileo Satellite Navigation running off a Cadence Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP. It’s a very impressive demo—come by our booth at Fira Gran Via, hall 6, standard 6L34, to see it.

Knowing we were having this demo, I did a little research before I left for MWC. I wondered: who needs GPS? It turns out, the IoT market is exploding with location-based opportunities. Research and Markets predicts that revenue from Geo IoT will reach $49 billion by 2012. Geo IoT includes not just information about the location, but also other important data such as the status of the device, temperature, and any other information the device is collecting.

Having a GPS receiver might be a real distinguishing feature in your next chip design. And this demo shows how easy it is with a software-based approach. The software-based GPS receiver makes it easy to add full GPS functionality with design flexibility and long-term upgradeability at a minimal cost, low power, and no physical size to today’s cost-sensitive IoT applications.

To get the lowest possible power, Galileo Satellite Navigation accelerated the performance of its GPS software receiver by creating several custom instructions to run on the Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP. As a result, the GPS software requires less than 110MHz for full 12-satellite functionality. Additionally, with this software-based solution, customers can reduce the overall processor requirements to meet less-demanding location-based use cases like asset tracking.

The Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP is ideal for IoT because it offers ultra-low energy yet high-performance control and signal processing that’s optimized for always-on processing. The Fusion F1 DSP is very efficient in running the narrowband wireless communications standards typically associated with IoT device communications, including protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and Zigbee using IEEE 802.15.4, Wi-Fi 802.11n and 802.11ah, and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). For more information on the Tensilica Fusion DSP family, visit our website.