A significant decline in prices and improved designs of chip sets has made it possible to connect a Global Positioning System (GPS) on almost any application that needs positioning data. Prices and evaluation of the complete GPS chip set offerings from six vendors are presented. These vendors are GEC Plessey, Motorola, Philips Semiconductor, Rockwell Semiconductor, SGS Thompson and SiRF Technology.
GPS is poised to invade everything from cellular phones to backpacks with new chip sets that implement a complete receiver using just two ICs plus memory. Chip-set prices, meanwhile, have hit the $30 mark, making GPS suitable in virtually any application that needs position data, including ...