NXP platform marries GPS, multimedia capabilities

location based services

SAN FRANCISCO — NXP Semiconductors Tuesday (Dec. 12) introduced a new personal media player platform combining GPS navigation functionality with multimedia capabilities.
According to NXP (Einhoven, the Netherlands), the new offering is based on the company's Nexperia mobile multimedia processor PNX1090 and features software from both NXP and partner ALK Technologies Inc. (Princeton, N.J.). NXP claims the solution offers everything a designer needs to build a low-cost, multimedia-rich portable media player with navigation capability. NXP said it plans to demonstrate the solution next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Rather than using a GPS baseband processor, NXP's solution features the company's swGPS Personal running on the PNX0190 to perform GPS calculations. According to NXP, by eliminating the GPS baseband silicon, the company's solution delivers a low bill of material. The software-based approach also provides flexibility for an evolving market, the company said.
"We didn't want to make a 'me too' product here," said D.J. Riezebos, product marketing manager for NXP's personal entertainment solutions unit. "We have a combination of GPS and media processing which you don't find in the market today."
According to NXP, swGPS Personal can supply continuous position updates every second to ensure smooth tracking, with cold start times of below 35 seconds. The software algorithms can be tuned to suit automotive or pedestrian use, according to the company.
The platform also incorporates ALK's CoPilot navigation software and includes maps for the U.S. and Canada, Riezebos said. Capabilities supported by the platform include MP3 playback, standard and high-definition video playback and recording, FM radio, image tank and gaming, according to the company.
According to Riezebos, the platform provider the performance to enable "very smooth" map rotation during turn-by-turn directions, and can be the backbone of novel applications such as a virtual video tour of locations.
The Nexperia multimedia-enabled navigation device solution will be available in Europe, Asia and the U.S. during the second half of next year, according to NXP. Riezebos said the platform will cost less than $4 per unit in volume quantities and is likely to enable products that cost less than $250. -->