A method of acquiring signals from satellites in a Global Positioning
System (GPS) is disclosed. The method includes receiving navigation
signals from the satellites of the GPS, down-converting to complex
baseband the received navigation signals to form a first signal,
digitizing samples of the first signal, nonlinear processing of the
digitized samples of the first signal to form a second signal, where the
nonlinear processing comprises forming a weighted sum of products of
pairs of the digitized samples at different relative delays, in which one
of each of the pairs has been complex conjugated, coherent averaging the
second signal over integer multiples or submultiples of a spreading
sequence period of the navigation signals to form a third signal,
performing circular correlation processing of the third signal with a
representation of each navigation signal of the navigation signals and
determining a timing offset at which a correlated output energy is
maximized, based on the circular correlation processing.