FPGA in the software radio

As new radio standards are deployed without substantially supplanting existing ones, the need for multimode multiband handsets and infrastructure increases. This article describes how emerging FPGA technology's unique combination of size and power efficiency plus field programmability offers a transition of FPCAs from ASIC prototyping to embedded products. Software-defined receiver examples suggest an enlarged role for FPGAs in pragmatic paths toward the productization of software radio technology.