Hello,
> This is a bit offtopic and I see no relation to software radio and refurbishment.....
I guess Nick was referring to the phone network radio, rather than to
a FM radio: the chip or piece of software that makes sense of the
carrier's GSM/CDMA/... signal, to carry your calls.
If it's hardware (a DSP chip with the signal specs such as frequency
and encoding hardwired into it), then the type of cell networks it
can connect to are limited to just those it's designed to access.
If it's software making use of more generic radio hardware, then one
should be able to reprogram it to connect to other networks than the
original one.
I guess there could be some hardware radios that are actually limited
by software, the way iPods are limited to only certain file formats
while the hardware actually supports others. However, given a
handset's space and power constraints, vs. the relative complexity of
cell radio signal processing (hence price, power usage and space of
the hardware), I suppose it's uncommon.
Best,
Raphaël
--
Raphaël MAZOYER <mazoye@wni.co.jp>
MOBILE Contents Planner Europe
Weathernews, Inc.
Received on Sat Sep 16 04:46:44 2006