A rake receiver in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of this invention is configurable by an external agent (e.g., microcontroller, DSP, or state machine) to suit the particular requirements of different spread spectrum systems. In an exemplary embodiment, the receiver includes multiple fingers. Each finger includes a plurality of generic despreaders/descramblers, a plurality of generic dechannelizers coupled to the despreaders/descramblers, and at least one timing estimation controller coupled to the despreaders/descramblers. The finger also includes at least one phase estimation controller, at least one frequency estimation controller, and at least one energy estimation controller all coupled to the generic dechannelizers.