Adaptive use of multiple receive chains in wireless communication terminals

A wireless communication device, comprising:

• a radio frequency subsystem, including:
• a transmitter operable to process input signals and to send out the processed input signals over a wireless communication network, and
• a plurality of receive chains operable to receive signals over the wireless communication network from a base station, and to process the received signals and to output the processed received signals;
• and
• a control unit operatively connected to the radio frequency subsystem, the control unit being operable to determine current signal conditions at the wireless communication device for signals transmitted by the base station, to determine a priori system information regarding the wireless communication device and regarding the wireless communication network, to determine a minimum number of receive chains needed to receive and successfully decode data transmitted by the base station based on the current signal conditions and the a priori system information, and to select specific ones of the plurality of receive chains such that the minimum number of receive chains needed to receive and successfully decode the transmitted data is selected;
• wherein the a priori system information includes one or more selected from the group consisting of modulation type, channel coding type, channel coding rate, repetition coding, power boosting information, space-time coding information and hybrid automatic repeat request information.