Software-defined radio, which is on its way to becoming a universal wireless device that can transparently handle a range of frequencies, modulation techniques, and encoding schemes, would in time replace the cellphone, BlackBerry, and other wireless devices. Moving the technology forward is Vanu, which says it will deliver in 2007 the first cellular base station that can concurrently process two waveformsCode Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication). The advantages of the technology (lower costs) is clear for cellular carriers, who will be able to add new services and adapt to new standards just by reworking software, rather than replacing or adding hardware. Software defined radio would get rid of considerable hardware, including a special purpose integrated circuit, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or a combination of the three. Moreover, some companies, including AsicAhead, BitWave Semiconductor, and TechnoConcepts, are developing reconfigurable RF chips that can directly convert any analog radio signal into digital across frequencies ranging from several megahertz to several gigahertz. Among topics covered are the inner workings of the Anywave base stations deployed by Mid-Texas Instruments Cellular. The base stations use Hewlett-Packard (HP) ProLiant servers that run Vanu's signal processing code with radio-front-end components provided by outside vendors.