SOFT is a broadband spectrum analyzer capable of continuously monitoring 20GHz of RF spectrum. Rather than traditional “sweeping” approaches, SOFT employs an innovative FFT-based architecture to both continuously “stare” at the entire spectrum, never missing even the shortest energy pulses. The first processing level can detect and identify energy with a 1MHz resolution, and the second level can dynamically “zoom” to resolve to a 1KHz resolution. Originally architected for the US Navy, this single-chip solution is portable and reconfigurable to a host of advanced applications.