Under auspices of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the NEXRAD Product Improvement (NPI) program, the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) designed and demonstrated an open-system architecture for the Radar Data Acquisition (RDA) subsystem of the WSR-88D radar. The new design will serve as the foundation for implementation of major enhancements to the basic radar including but not limited to sophisticated ambiguity resolution techniques and dual polarization. A prototype with limited functionality has been successfully realized and operating since May of 2000. This paper presents general characteristics and benefits of the new design.