GNU Radio and the USRP

Wired has a cool article about the Universal Software Radio Peripheral produced by Ettus research.

The unit makes it possible to create software defined radio products and applications. Some people are using it to decode HDTV signals, others for communications systems, cell phone tracking, and even radar like applications. For the relatively small price of $550 to $1000, you can plug one of these into your product and roll with it. Think of all the custom ASIC development you'd save. This is a step above programmable controlers in your product. With this stuff, you can update the functionality of your products without changing the hardware.

What a cool product, given that it puts a whole lot of power in the hands of intrepid inventors out there. This unit can be used by the GNU Radio project software. From the GNU Radio description:

GNU Radio is a collection of software that when combined with minimal hardware, allows the construction of radios where the actual waveforms transmitted and received are defined by software. What this means is that it turns the digital modulation schemes used in today's high performance wireless devices into software problems.