AGPS closed source drivers

[Wim Lewis]

On Thu Dec 28 2006, 18:39 CET, "Sean Moss-Pultz"  
<sean_mosko at fic.com.tw> wrote:
> The GPS chipset we are using is a new kind of architecture that  
> separates
> the processing algorithms from the actual hardware. This solves two
> important problems that have kept GPS functionality out of most GSM  
> mobile
> phones:

Ahh, this finally all makes sense. Some actual location-finding  
computations are offloaded onto the host CPU. So the gpsd is actually  
doing some nontrivial work; it's not just a DRM-like module to  
enforce the use of an expensive AGPS server.

So, from the perspective of wanting an open, freely usable gps  
receiver on the Neo1973, I think this means a couple of things. One  
is that the gpsd is doing fairly complicated things, and the  
communication between it and the GPS hardware is probably fairly low- 
level radio data, in a format specific to the receiver chip. This  
means that producing an open-source gpsd will be a lot more work. (On  
the other hand, open-source gps receivers exist already: http:// 
gps.psas.pdx.edu/ http://gps.psas.pdx.edu/OpenGnssProjects .) The  
upside, though, is that an open-source gpsd could have the  
opportunity to do new and interesting things.