There are a couple of good ways to make your portable GPS device last longer. Either come up with a battery that lasts longer or develop a GPS chip that runs off less power. There’s a good chance we’ll see much longer lithium-ion battery lifespans over the next few years, but u-blox has come up with a new GPS module that runs at 1.8 Volts. Not too shabby considering the typical chips in most GPS devices operate at 3 Volts; that’s a 40% decrease. At the moment u-blox hasn’t revealed what devices will use the NEO 5D and 5G chips, or when, but with dimensions of 12×16×2.4 millimeters the Swiss company is most likely aiming at the mobile handset navigation market. Also kind of interesting that the Openmoko Neo Freerunner uses u-blox chip…note the naming similarities.
