Introducing Code Metal’s Advanced RF Group

Ask most engineers working in radio frequency where their projects actually get stuck, and the answer usually isn’t the algorithm. The math works. The model runs. The hard part comes later: getting that algorithm onto real silicon, in a real system, performing reliably under real-world constraints with limited power, limited latency, in a crowded and contested spectrum, and on a deployment timeline that doesn’t wait.

That gap, between an algorithm that works in a model and a capability that works in the field, is the problem Code Metal was built to close.

Our vision is to accelerate the path from code to metal with provable AI: taking the software that defines a system’s behavior and getting it to run efficiently, reliably, and verifiably on the hardware it has to live on, whether that’s a CPU, GPU, FPGA, DSP, ASIC, or an emerging semiconductor platform.

Increasingly, the systems where that gap hurts most are radio frequency, or RF systems. RF systems have to communicate, sense, navigate, and operate in environments that are more crowded, more contested, and more technically demanding than they were even a few years ago.

To take this head-on, we’re launching the Code Metal Advanced RF Group, and to build it, we’ve acquired Signal Processing Technologies, Inc. (SPT). SPT’s founders, Joe Farkas and Dr. Brandon Hombs, are joining Code Metal to lead this work.

Why SPT

Plenty of teams can describe an RF problem. Far fewer have actually shipped solutions across the RF stack, from signal processing and software-defined radio to advanced communications, spectrum sensing, and RF machine learning, for customers who cannot afford for the thing not to work when the consequences are real.

SPT has. Through work with organizations including STR, BAE Systems, and RTX, they’ve brought RF algorithms out of the lab, onto real hardware, and into real mission environments.

I experienced this first-hand when I met Brandon while working on a BAE Systems program. Brandon was brought in to help with some of the hardest algorithmic problems in the system, and did so with great reverence. His and Joe’s deep understanding of RF algorithms in real, mission-critical applications is what makes SPT the right team for Code Metal.

Joe Farkas and Dr. Brandon Hombs, co-founders of Signal Processing Technologies, join Code Metal to lead the Advanced RF Group.

Why RF sits at the center of our work

Code Metal’s thesis is that the hardest and most valuable engineering work increasingly happens at the boundary between software and silicon. RF lives deep in that boundary.

Most software is written for general-purpose compute. RF software is different. Signal-processing and communications systems often have to run across a combination of traditional compute, like CPUs and GPUs, and more specialized compute, like FPGAs and DSPs. Getting that software to perform reliably across heterogeneous compute is where projects slow down, costs grow, and timelines slip. It is also where domain knowledge lives and where mistakes are most expensive.

Bringing SPT into Code Metal expands our ability to help customers design, optimize, verify, and deploy systems across that boundary, enabling us to bring advanced RF capabilities to mission-critical systems across telecom, space, and defense.

What the Advanced RF Group will do

The Advanced RF Group brings together two disciplines that modern RF systems increasingly require: SPT’s deep RF expertise and Code Metal’s ability to move software efficiently onto the hardware it depends on.

SPT understands how advanced communications, software-defined radio, autonomous sensing, and contested-spectrum systems actually operate once they leave the lab. Code Metal brings the ability to translate, verify, and optimize code so advanced RF capabilities can move from prototype to deployment more quickly.

Together, this creates a powerful combination. The Advanced RF Group can help customers take advantage of the latest advances in semiconductor design across a range of compute paradigms, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, DSPs, and other specialized architectures.

This kind of low-level development has historically been reserved for systems where extreme precision and efficiency justify the manual effort, such as high-frequency trading or data centers. Now, the Advanced RF Group can bring that same level of performance discipline to RF systems, helping customers move faster from advanced algorithms to efficient, reliable, field-ready hardware.

Here’s how Joe put it:

“

What makes joining Code Metal so exciting is the technology: a platform built to translate, verify, and optimize advanced algorithms for deployment on real hardware.

”

— Joe Farkas, Co-Founder of SPT

“Brandon and I have spent years working with customers on some of the hardest problems in RF, signal processing, and communications systems,” said Joe Farkas, Co-Founder of SPT. “What makes joining Code Metal so exciting is the technology: a platform built to translate, verify, and optimize advanced algorithms for deployment on real hardware. Leading the Advanced RF Group gives us the opportunity to apply that platform to one of the most complex and consequential engineering domains, helping customers move faster from RF ideas to reliable, field-ready systems.”

Welcome to the team

This is Code Metal’s first acquisition, and it reflects a clear alignment between the work SPT has been doing and the mission we are building toward. Joe, Brandon, and the SPT team have built deep technical expertise and real customer trust in a domain that matters more to our customers every day.

Bringing our teams together will help customers move faster from concept to capability, from advanced algorithms to reliable systems in the field, and from code to metal.

We are excited to welcome them to Code Metal and to start building together.

—Peter