What is claimed is:
1. An apparatus configured to be employed within a transmitter, comprising:
a noise shaper configured to:
receive an input signal xq; and
apply noise shaping to the input signal xq to generate a noise shaped output signal yq, wherein an in-band noise of the noise shaped output signal yq is below an in-band noise threshold of a spectral mask associated with the noise shaper, wherein an out-of-band noise of the noise shaped output signal yq is below an out-of-band noise threshold of the spectral mask, and wherein a noise of the output signal yq in each of a plurality of bandpass regions is below an associated noise threshold for that bandpass region of the spectral mask.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the noise shaper is configured to compensate for DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) nonlinearities in the input signal xq.
3. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the noise shaper is further configured to employ delta-sigma modulation to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.
4. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the noise shaper is further configured to employ pyramid encoding to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the noise shaper comprises:
a pyramid encoder configured to receive a signal eq comprising the Bp LSB (least significant bits) of the input signal xq and to generate a Bp bit noise-shaped signal pq based on the signal eq and a plurality of filter taps of the pyramid encoder; and
an adder configured to add the Bp bit noise-shaped signal pq to a Bc bit signal cq comprising the Bc MSB (most significant bits) of the transmit signal to generate a combined signal cq+pq,
wherein the noise shaper is configured to generate the noise shaped output signal yq based on the combined signal cq+pq.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the noise shaper further comprises saturation circuitry configured to apply saturation arithmetic to the combined signal cq+pq to generate the noise shaped output signal yq.
7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the Bp bit noise-shaped signal pq and the Bc bit signal cq overlap by at least one bit.
8. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the out-of-band noise for at least a portion of an out-of-band region of the noise shaped output signal yq is above the associated noise threshold for each bandpass region of the spectral mask.
9. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the noise shaper is configured to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq via a plurality of filter taps.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the noise shaper is configured to generate the filter taps based on a look-up table of pre-computed values for the plurality of filter taps.
11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the noise shaper is configured to generate the filter taps based on a M-level quantizer, wherein M is greater than or equal to 3.
12. An apparatus configured to be employed within a transmitter, comprising:
a quantizer configured to receive a signal xq and to generate a Bc bit signal cq, wherein Bc is a positive integer;
a first adder configured to subtract the Bc bit signal cq from the signal xq to generate a difference signal eq;
a noise shaper configured to receive the difference signal eq and to generate a noise-shaped Bp bit signal pq, wherein Bp is a positive number less than Bc; and
a second adder configured to combine the Bc bit signal cq and the noise-shaped Bp bit signal pq to generate a noise shaped By bit signal cq+pq, wherein By is a positive integer greater than Bc.
13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising saturation circuitry configured to
receive the noise shaped By bit signal cq+pq and to generate a saturated noise shaped
By bit signal yq.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a DAC (Digital-to-Analog
Converter) model configured to compensate for DAC nonlinearities in the input signal
Xq.
15. The apparatus of any of claims 12-14, wherein the noise shaper is further configured to employ delta-sigma modulation to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.
16. The apparatus of any of claims 12-14, wherein the noise shaper is further configured to employ pyramid encoding to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.
17. A machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a transmitter to:
receive an input signal xq; and
apply noise shaping to the input signal xq to generate a noise shaped output signal yq, wherein an in-band noise of the noise shaped output signal yq is below an in-band noise threshold of a spectral mask associated with the noise shaper, wherein an out-of-band noise of the noise shaped output signal yq is below an out-of-band noise threshold of the spectral mask, and wherein a noise of the output signal yq in each of a plurality of bandpass regions is below an associated noise threshold for that bandpass region of the spectral mask.
18. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the transmitter to compensate for DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) nonlinearities in the input signal xq.
19. The machine readable medium of any of claims 17-18, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the transmitter to employ delta-sigma modulation to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.
20. The machine readable medium of any of claims 17-18, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the transmitter to employ pyramid encoding to apply noise shaping to the input signal xq.