ld go to bed and get up the next day and do it over again.
From the beginning we knew many of the things the radio would be capable of based on the hardware and we did things in the hardware to make sure we could do as many things in the future as we could dream up. To this day, we have a long list of fantastic things that we can do in the radio and the main thing standing in the way is writing the code. We continue to add new ideas to that list and work on all the things on the list. As the FLEX-6000 has continued to sell well, we continue to hire more engineers to execute that list faster and faster. Now the ideas come from everywhere -- customers, advisers, employees, etc. We work on key priorities and the best ideas based on an internal plan (much of which is shared with you in the roadmap).
So there's essentially in the design process there is communications between the hardware designer knowing the available parts and the software architecture designer on what's possible. The hardware guy might say "if I add this capability, could you use it?" or the software guy might say "is there any way you could give me thins kind of data?" You work together to figure out what gets you the most value for the buck and the engineering investment and you go with that.
Designing and building the FLEX-6000 and SmartSDR with the team at FlexRadio has, without a doubt, been the most rewarding experience in my career. I've never worked with a better team of people. With the SmartSDR foundation, our engineers can visit with a customer at a hamfest, hear a great idea, say "I can do that" and then return home and make it a reality. As an engineer it's extremely satisfying to be able to envision what a customer wants and be able to make that a reality. The FLEX-6000 hardware platform is the most programmable platform we've ever had and we can do just about anything on it -- which is why we designed it the way we did.
Sorry for the novel! I hope it gives you some insight into how we do this at FlexRadio. It's probably different other places, but there are probably similarities.