Digital Signal Processors in GPS Receivers

Abstract

Unlike the conventional hardware approaches to GPS base band signal processing, a software GPS receiver is extremely flexible as it comes with all the associated advantages of a software solution. With a software solution, the improvements of silicon technology can be easily translated into better performance at smaller form factors and lower power consumption, without a redesign and/or change to the ASIC. A general purpose Digital Signal Processor (DSP) can be used effectively for GPS signal processing. The memory and speed resources available determine the algorithms and applications that can be effectively implemented in the receiver. The performance of software GPS receivers will soon be difficult to be surpassed by the hardware counterparts, as high-performance processors become available at low cost. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.