May 27, 2014 – CSR ( http://www.csr.com ), a global provider of innovative semiconductor ICs and software solutions for location awareness, multimedia, and cloud connectivity, announced today that its location platform, the SiRFstarV™ architecture, has successfully verified location using Galileo satellites.

CSR’s industry-leading SiRFstarV™ 5ea quad GNSS receiver successfully captured signals from a total of four Galileo satellites currently in orbit and used this to determine its location over the German region.

The European Commission recently mandated the installation of an Automatic Emergency Call (or eCall) system via the Galileo system in light vehicles. The eCall system automatically sends emergency rescue messages in the event of an accident, and the European Commission aims for the system to be fully operational across all EU countries by the end of 2015. CSR’s SiRFstarV is one of the few GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) receivers capable of supporting the Galileo satellite eCall system.

At least four satellites are required to calculate a location, including latitude, longitude, and altitude. Since the four satellites of the Galileo observation system can currently observe the Earth's surface simultaneously for only two to three hours a day at specific times, position verification is also possible only during those times. Meanwhile, the time frame for position verification is expected to expand once the European Space Agency deploys more satellites and ground stations begin operations.

Full positioning, navigation, and time services using the Galileo system are expected to become available in 2018. Automotive industry manufacturers are embarking on design work to release solutions supporting the Galileo system, such as the SiRstarV, in time for 2018.

Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President of the Business Group at CSR, stated, “This positioning is an important first step for the CSR and SiRFstarV architecture. It demonstrates our technological capabilities in supporting major satellite observation systems, including the U.S. GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) known as Compass, and Europe’s Galileo.”

Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, further emphasized, “CSR has been anticipating the deployment of the Galileo satellite navigation system and has been developing SiRFstarV with this in mind. CSR’s improved GNSS architecture will not only meet the mandatory eCall system installation mandate through a feature-rich core platform but also support software upgrade capabilities, enabling the full utilization of future Galileo systems.”

CSR's SiRFstarV architecture provides real-time positioning services based on GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BDS, or COMPASS satellites. In addition, CSR enables continuous positioning in all environments, including urban canyons, tunnels, and underground parking lots, by providing SiRFDRive® technology, which fuses MEMS (geomagnetic, accelerometer, and gyroscope sensors), vehicle sensor data, and GNSS measurements.