Date: 26/03/2012

GNSS chip from Broadcom for indoor positioning in phones

Broadcom Corporation has introduced a new location architecture and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chip to provide more responsive outdoor and indoor positioning capabilities for smartphone devices for applications, such as indoor positioning and place-based mobile commerce.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) chip reduces time-to-first-fix (TTFF) for outdoor positioning applications, cutting the time smartphone users have to wait when first checking their position. The platform solution also uses data from inertial sensors, Wi-Fi access points (including those based on recently announced 5G WiFi) and future technologies such as Bluetooth beacons to enable better indoor positioning capabilities, such as "personal shopper" applications that can direct users to specific stores within shopping malls, and even specific shelves within those stores. In addition, platform integration with NFC enables smarter, more secure mobile payments, with users able to specify countries, cities or even stores where digital wallets can be used.

The Broadcom BCM4752 GNSS chip simultaneously collecting data from four satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS) and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation.


Availability: The BCM4752 is production ready and shipping to early access partners.