In addition to its
ARM11 core -- further specifics were not provided -- the SiRFprima includes a digital signal processor (DSP) and satellite tracking circuitry. The "hardware scalable location engine" features 64 channels with -161 dBm sensitivity, and more than 1,000,000 correlators, according to SiRF.
The SiRFprima is said to be one of the first products that is capable of working with both American
GPS and European
Galileo satellite networks. The SoC also dedicates some of its hardware to accelerating SiRF's
InstantFixII technology, which has been touted as decreasing GPS startup times by modeling satellite behavior, then predicting their positions in the sky for up to three days in the future.
The SoC's hardware-accelerated graphics are based on Imagination Technologies'
PowerVR MBX core, which supports Direct3D on Windows Mobile and OpenGL ES on Linux. The PowerVR MBX supports key 3D features, and has a Vertex Geometry Processor that offloads complex 3D transformation and lighting (T&L) tasks. It provides fill rates in excess of 300 million pixels/sec., according to Imagination Technologies.
The SiRFprima additionally offers video and multimedia acceleration via PowerVR's
MVED1, claimed by its vendor to accelerate the decoding or encoding of H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, MPEG-2 and VC-1 (WMV9) video streams, with over a 90 percent reduction in CPU load. Finally, says SiRF, the SiRF Prima has a "full complement" of peripheral and external interfaces for connecting to touch screens, mass storage devices, video cameras, and other equipment.
SiRF's SoC becomes the third product to be announced this week featuring an ARM11 core and 3D graphics capabilities. The others, covered earlier on
WindowsForDevices.com, are STMicroelectronics' AMD-derived
STn8820 and Nvidia's
APX 2500.
AvailabilitySiRF provided no information on packaging options for the SiRFprima but said it will be offered in both form factor reference designs and evaluation boards. Running Windows CE or Linux, it will begin sampling in the second quarter of this year, according to the company. The Windows CE-based Windows Mobile operating system was not specified, but is likely also supported.
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