The Silicon Review ^Asia

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in a recent press meet announced that it has provided a consultation to San Diego-based chipmaker giant Qualcomm in order to produce NavlC in their Snapdragon mobile chipset platforms. ISRO also said that it will be utilizing the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) to create NavlC navigation with Indian constellation.

“These chipsets are being released by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and the release will help accelerate the adoption of NavIC by smartphone OEMs," ISRO stated. The OEMs can now release different models into the Indian market which are NavlC enabled thereby, eventually making it a standard feature in the upcoming handsets, processors, and applications. This new system will also help in increasing the geolocation capabilities of the smartphones within the allowed coverage region with respect to the NavlC configuration.

ISRO also said that it is also talking to the Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi regarding the provision of chipsets that can support NavlC. Many mobile manufacturers are showing a great interest in this ‘desi’ technology that is being developed by ISRO. The organization said that the new chips will be hitting the market by the end of May. If everything goes as per the plan, ISRO will be the 3^rd space organization after the USA and Russia to produce a smart-technology chip.