Monday, August 24, 2009

Cartesio chipset used in Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS

I've been wondering what kind of GPS chipset is inside my Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS. Some say it is the famous SiRFstarIII, some say it is the Taiwanese MTK chipset, but I find out that it is actually the STMicro Cartesio.

In fact, all the current Garmin Nuvi 2x5 series of GPS are using this Cartesio automotive-grade infotainment application processor with embeded GPS receiver. It features the System-on-Chip (SoC) technology which combines the host CPU and a high-performance 32-channel GPS correlator, and also a large set of peripherals and interfaces.

Here are some of the technical information about the STMicro Cartesio (code name STA2062):

  • High performance ARM926 333-MHz CPU
  • High performance 32-channel GPS correlator
  • Bus/DDR frequency is 166 MHz
  • 32 KB embedded ROM for boot
  • 2 banks of 64 KB embedded SRAM
  • 0.5 KB embedded SRAM for back-up
  • 4 GB total linear address space
  • Operating temperature range from -40 to 85 °C
Click here for more information on the STMicro Cartesio.

My GPS usage experience shows that this STMicro Cartesio is performing pretty good.

3 comments:

Kenson said... Reply To This Comment

You did better job than forensic pathologist in Teoh's case. :)

Very deep knowledge of GPS, normally people just use it, even lazy to explore the extra features, as long as know basic function will do.

Nice post.

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

Hi Kenson,

I am a manager in the technology field, been graduated as engineer from university.

It is my interest and hobby to know more about the technical behind the thing we use, especially on ICT stuff.

And it is my pleasure to share about what I've explored and leant to my readers here.

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

If you are interested to know what chipset is used in each model of the Garmin GPS, can refer to the article in the link below:

GPS Chipsets used on Garmin GPS Systems

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