Samsung licenses Sandbridge's reconfigurable baseband tech

Reconfigurable baseband processors aren't a new concept by any stretch of the imagination, but so far, the idea that we might move from CDMA to HSPA to LTE to WiMAX on our handsets with little more than some creative firmware flashing is -- sadly -- science fiction. Samsung's taking that dream a little closer to reality this week by revealing that it's licensing Sandbridge Technologies' software radio tech for integration in future devices; odds are, they're looking at this as a power play for reducing manufacturing expenses and not as a too-easy way for users to switch network technologies on the go, but as the old adage goes, "where there's a hacker, there's a way." Once this is implemented, the only remaining hurdle will be configurability of the actual frequencies in use -- it's dictated as much by the antenna as it is by the baseband itself, so we'll have to wait for tiny antenna robots before that sitch works itself out.