Updated January 2021
Most of us are familiar with communication devices such as AM/FM radios, Smart phones and Two-way radios. The radios within these devices are comprised of hardware in the form of electronic circuits.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.onesdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fm-radio-3.jpg?resize=462%2C243&ssl=1)
All the hardware in an AM/FM radio is designed for one main task only – and that is to process AM/FM signals. Now if you want to process more than one type of signal, you will either need multiple radios, one for each type of signal. Or you will need a system that includes dedicated hardware (integrated circuits for instance) for each type of signal protocol. However there is a practical physical limit to how many radios can be combined into one.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.onesdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Many-radio.png?resize=543%2C315&ssl=1)
Software-defined radio simplifies this approach considerably. In a SDR, the processing is done in both hardware and software. SDR uses a common wideband radio front end and a software processor to process signals.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.onesdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/sdr-basics-hw-sw-interface.jpg?resize=535%2C301&ssl=1)
Software provides the flexibility to process many different types of signals. The user can then use one SDR device to process all kinds of signals from FM to 4G/LTE. In fact there is no limit to the number or type of signals that can be processed in software. This is the power of Software-defined Radio! SDR has grown significantly in popularity. 20 years ago there were only a couple of SDRs on the market. Today however there are over a hundred different SDR transmitters, receivers and transceivers. Many options to choose from depending on your requirements.
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