Requirements for future mobile communications systems are demanding. This paper presents techniques and a development system for the research, design & development of reconfigurable digital signal processing for software radio based systems. Software radio is an essential technology required for the realisation of 3G to meet requirements such as seamless global roaming and protocol independence. This development system ensures that the use of FPGA is practical and realistic when considering the high data rate and multifunctional requirements of 3G systems.