A high performance real-time turbo code system is proposed. The proposed system exploits cooperative coding architecture and a proper decoding scheduling to achieve low error rate within a constrained latency. Permutation schemes and hardware embodiments utilizing the cooperative coding are also shown. Various memory saving techniques are provided to reduce memory usage in both encoder and decoder. The proposed system is compatible with 3rd generation mobile standards and cost of designing new parts exclusively for the proposed system can be minimized. This invention can provide substantial coding and system capacity gains for real-time applications in a wireless environment.