A hybrid modem or transceiver includes communication hardware that transforms time domain samples of a received signal to frequency domain information. The communication hardware transfers the frequency domain information to a host computer which executes receiver software to process the frequency domain information and extract data. The host computer also executes transmitter software to determine frequency domain information corresponding to a transmitted signal. The transmitter software transfers that frequency domain information to the communication hardware which converts the frequency domain information to time domain samples of the transmitted signal. Typically, the hybrid modem or transceiver includes processing hardware for Fourier transforms and inverse Fourier transforms that convert information between the time and frequency domains. This reduces the processing burden on the host computer when compared to conventional software modems or transceivers, but does not have the high hardware costs associated with conventional hardware modems and transceivers.