Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: STMicroelectronics | Subject: STA2056
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 21 October 2004
Single-chip GPS receiver has MCU power
to spare
The STA2056 is a single-chip GPS for active antenna systems featuring the complete RF function, GPS baseband, an ARM7TDMI processor and peripherals on a single piece of silicon.
The STA2056 is a single-chip GPS (global positioning system) for active antenna systems featuring the complete RF function, GPS baseband, an ARM7TDMI processor and peripherals on a single piece of silicon It combines GPS performance with low power consumption
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The STA2056 has a high level of integration - a low-phase-noise VCO/PLL, IF filters, mixer and low-noise amplifier are all included in the RF section - developed using a 0.18-micron CMOS process, which dramatically reduces the number of external components.
Only an active antenna, a crystal, and few passive devices for input match are required to complete the application.
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Despite its high level of integration and increased RF requirements for microprocessor coexistence, the STA2056 draws only 37mA in typical operating mode.
"As the only company to ever successfully embed the radio section of a GPS device into a digital single-chip GPS receiver requiring no external memory and host CPU, ST now offers OEMs the ability to embed GPS chips into new areas of the car, like the antenna, where space is at a premium", said Antonio Radaelli, Director of ST's Automotive Business Unit.
"We are confident that we have developed a product that meets the needs of the market and hits the points in terms of price and power consumption".
The on-chip peripherals include a CAN 2.0B active interface and a four-channel 12bit ADC.
The STA2056 is ideal for in-vehicle telematics and navigation OEM applications.
In addition, I2C, UART, SPI and GPIO complete the range of available interfaces.
The availability of an embedded 4Kbyte back-up RAM allows the storing of GPS information, optimising startup performance.
The GPS code is available in ROM for the full GPS function with both EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) and WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability.
Core frequency (up to 66MHz), ROM size (256Kbyte) and on-chip peripherals/interfaces are provided such that the STA2056 can be used as a host CPU in a telematics unit.
The standard package is a space-saving QFN68.
A development version with Flash external memory interface (TQFP 176-pin package) is also available for custom code development before freezing a production-ROM version.
Samples of the STA2056 are available now.
Pricing in quantities of 100,000 pieces will be below $8.
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