What’s the difference between SiRF and Qualcomm’s Vision for GPS Integration in Cell Phones?

EE Times attempts to explain the difference.

Conventional wisdom would hold that the natural migration of global positioning technology into handsets at minimal cost means the integration of RF and digital functions into the same device, with a “no chip” GPS solution as the end game. The most notable proponent of that architectural approach is Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego), which for years has been integrating GPS processors into digital baseband chips for CDMA handsets.

But there is an alternate approach: providing standalone GPS silicon and intellectual property (IP) for integration, as has been done for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality.

By far the biggest supplier of standalone GPS silicon and associated software is SiRF Technology (San Jose, Calif.), which has enjoyed significant market share for standalone PNDs and is seeing its chips increasingly designed into mobile phones.

Author John Walko picks Qualcomm as the longterm winner.