Geostar Navigation, a Moscow-based producer of navigation receivers for telematic services, will start mass production of a new GLONASS+GPS chipset as early as next spring. The announcement, reported by news agency RIA Novosti, was made at a press conference on Monday by NIS GLONASS General Manager Alexander Gurko.
The low power chipset, named GeoC-3, will be the first Russian chipset to fully meet the needs of satellite based navigation devices for the consumer market.
Gurko also announced that Rusnano, the state-owned nanotech giant, will finance the production of Geostar’s next generation of chipsets, GeoC-4. The project will start early next year and could be completed in less than two years.
Navis, a Russian company specializing in navigation systems, offers three different GLONASS products. But the launch of Navis’ own low energy chipset has been delayed, according to Gurko.
Sitronics, a Russian producer of telecommunications, IT, and microelectronics solutions, announced earlier this year that it could start supplying chipsets before the end of 2011.
The demand for Glonass+GPS chipsets is growing, with such international players as Broadcom, Qualcomm, ST Ericsson, STMicroelectronics and Infineon already offering their receivers.
Geostar Navigation belongs to M2M Telematics, a Russian holding which specializes in advanced GPS/GLONASS/GSM systems for use in a range of industries. The company has been praised by Fast Company magazine “for positioning itself to dominate the chip market for GLONASS.” “Among the companies eager to leverage its tech: Nokia, Motorola, and Qualcomm,” wrote the US magazine in March.
The GLONASS/GNSS Forum Association, a Russian organization of manufacturers and users of equipment for satellite-based navigation systems, publishes a catalog of Russian-made products (available only in Russian).
