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FirstGPS Starter Kit User Guide
3
FirstGPS Starter Kit Overview
1
The FirstGPS architecture is built around three components designed
by Trimble:
• Colossus™ Radio Frequency (RF) ASIC
• IO Digital Signal Processing (DSP) ASIC
• FirstGPS software library
1
The Colossus and IO
2
chips are the center of the GPS function
hardware core. The FirstGPS library is the software interface with the
GPS function hardware core, and it is linked into the customer’s
software application.
A complete FirstGPS implementation comprises the following
components:
• Power
• Antenna and low-noise amplifier (LNA)
• The GPS function hardware core
• The host software application (Application Layer and
FirstGPS library)
1.
The FirstGPS software library is sometimes referred to as simply the
FirstGPS library.
2.
The IO chip (pronounced EEH-ooh) is named after the moon of Jupiter,
whose discovery (along with the three other Galilean moons) was one of the
landmarks in the history of navigation. By marking the Jovian lunar
transits/eclipses (Galileo estimated there are three per day on average), two
navigators can easily synchronize their timepieces. This established the first
anywhere, anytime
time standard. Since the measurement of time is
equivalent to the measurement of longitude, observation of the Jovian moons
allowed absolute accurate positioning for the first time in the history of man.
For a more detailed account of Galileo’s discovery, and the invention of the
chronometer which
eclipsed
his discovery, see
Longitude: The True Story of
a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time,
Dava Sobel, 1995.