Qualcomm Inc. has announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., is supporting the European Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) broadly in its product portfolios.
While Qualcomm Technologies began implementing hardware support for Galileo several years ago in select chipsets, this announcement signals the mobile industry’s first pervasive, end-to-end location-services platform for smartphone, computing, infotainment, telematics, and IoT applications.
With these optimised software enhancements, the Qualcomm® IZat™ location services platform now utilises up to six satellite constellations concurrently without incremental device hardware or cost. Users now benefit from more than 80 different satellites when calculating global position for navigation or location-based applications.
The addition of another GNSS is intended to provide more accurate location performance faster time-to-first-fix, and improved robustness all over the world, particularly in challenging urban environments where the combination of narrow streets and tall buildings can reduce accuracy.
“Accurate, reliable, and rapid position location is an important part of the mobile experience,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Qualcomm Technologies is helping to improve consumers’ experiences with location-based services by adding Galileo support to our IZat location platform and deploying it broadly across our modem and application processor portfolios.”
This feature is integrated in the latest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800, 600, and 400 processors and modems. Galileo will be supported on smartphones and compute devices with the appropriate software release on Snapdragon 820, 652, 650, 625, 617, and 435 processors, automotive infotainment solutions utilising Snapdragon 820A, and telematics and IoT solutions with Snapdragon X16, X12, X7, and X5 LTE Modems, and Qualcomm® 9×15 and MDM6x00 modems.
These enhanced processors and modems are designed to enable infotainment and telematics solution providers to satisfy an important component of the European eCall mandate ahead of the March 2018 deadline. “We are happy to announce support for the European Galileo satellite navigation system and to see that longstanding efforts and cooperation between the GSA, the European Commission, Qualcomm Technologies and the mobile ecosystem are delivering a key component of the European Digital Single Market,” said Enrico Salvatori, president of Qualcomm Europe. “eCall and Galileo, together with upcoming advances in automotive connectivity pave the way to enhancing road safety and delivering new services to consumers.”
“The Galileo constellation relies on 14 satellites in orbit today. Following our cooperation on Galileo integration, we welcome the announcement that Qualcomm Technologies is contributing to the rapid adoption of Galileo, in view of the Initial Services foreseen by end of 2016. The Galileo signal has demonstrated high performance and we believe will enhance user experience with more accurate and robust positioning” said Carlo des Dorides, executive director of European GNSS Agency.
The Snapdragon modem and application processor platforms’ widespread ecosystem reach can accelerate mobile industry support for Galileo. To date, over 200 Galileo-enabled Qualcomm Technologies-based designs are already planned, and Qualcomm Technologies expects general availability of the required software in the 3rd quarter of 2016. IZat location solutions have been shipped in more than 5 Billion devices globally.
For more information on Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile location technology please visit: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/izat
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