Systems and methods for computing correlation in a navigation receiver

A correlator module (320) configured to be connected to a system bus, wherein the correlator module is configured to perform a correlation between first batches of received signal samples and second batches of code samples of a local replica of a spreading code, wherein the correlator module comprises:

• a carrier phase generator circuit configured to determine carrier phases corresponding with each of the received signal samples of the first batches,
• a code generator circuit configured to determine each of the second batches of the code samples,
• a correlation computing circuit configured to correlate the received signal samples of one of the first batches with the code samples of a respective one of the second batches thereby obtaining a correlation output, and
• an accumulator circuit configured to accumulate correlation outputs in respect of a plurality of the first batches,
• wherein the correlator module is configured to receive the first batches as words via the system bus, wherein each of the words consists of a predetermined number of the received signal samples, and
• wherein the correlator module is configured to trigger operations configured to obtain the correlation output each time one of the words is received from the system bus.

A method of correlating received signal samples with code samples of a spreading code replica, the method comprising:

• packing first batches of the received signal samples as words, wherein each of the words consists of a predetermined number of the received signal samples,
• feeding the words to a signal correlator circuit via a system bus, preferably the system bus has a width being an integer multiple of a bit size of each of the words, preferably wherein the system bus has a width equal to a bit size of each of the words,
• for the received signal samples of each word, determining respective carrier phase values and respective code samples of the spreading code replica and computing, by the signal correlator circuit, a correlation of the received signal samples of each word with the respective code samples to obtain a correlation output, and
• accumulating the correlation outputs computed in respect of a plurality of the words to obtain an accumulated output,
• wherein feeding a respective word to the signal correlator circuit triggers computing the correlation of the received signal samples of the respective word by the signal correlator circuit.