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Super-Accurate GPS Chips Coming To Smartphones In 2018 (ieee.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the high-accuracy dept.

schwit1 writes about a new mass-market Broadcom chip designed for the next generation of smartphones: It'll know where you are to within 30 centimeters (11.8 inches), rather than five meters. At least that's the claim chip maker Broadcom is making. It says that some of its next-generation smartphone chips will use new global positioning satellite signals to boost accuracy. In a detailed report on the announcement and how the new signals work, IEEE Spectrum says that the new chips, which are expected to appear in some phones as soon as next year, will also use half the power of today's chips and even work in cities where tower blocks often interfere with existing systems. All told, it sounds like a massive change for those who rely on their phones to find their way.

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. government or technology restriction? by gravewax · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I had always heard the lower accuracy from gps was a government imposed restriction or limitations of the protocols not a technical one. is that simply an old myth? I know nothing about the tech personally.

    1. Re:government or technology restriction? by brad3378 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Be sure to check out the new L5 technology.

      Fascinating stuff.

      https://hothardware.com/news/b...

      --
    2. Re:government or technology restriction? by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You can already get sub-meter accuracy in some areas with differential GPS. It uses a reference signal from a fixed ground station to adjust or toss out obviously inaccurate satellite signals.

      And Selective Availability was first turned off in the buildup to the first Gulf War in 1990. GPS was still relatively new and the U.S. military hadn't expected a massive deployment that soon, so didn't have sufficient military grade GPS receivers (IIRC they only had enough to provide one per company or battalion (few hundred soldiers), when ideally they wanted one per squad (few soliders) or vehicle. So they turned off SA and bought and distributed civilian GPS receivers (which still cost about $1500 apiece then).

      It was turned back on after the war, but GPS users, especially maritime users, had gotten a taste of what its true accuracy was like and didn't want to go back. 100 meter accuracy is only enough to get you in the vicinity of the harbor entrance. 20 meter accuracy is enough to avoid specific rocks and shoals. They lobbied hard to get it turned off, and developed methods to augment GPS with other signals like dGPS. These became commonplace enough by the late 1990s that there was really no point keeping SA on, since dGPS is actually more accurate than GPS without SA.