A pipelined decimation in frequency FFT butterfly method, and an apparatus to perform this method comprising: a data memory with at least one read port and one write port; an add/subtract unit receiving data from the memory; a multiply/accumulate unit receiving data from the add/subtract unit; a source of coefficients, from logic gates or a coefficient memory, to supply FFT twiddle factors to the multiply/accumulate unit; a shifter receiving data from at least one of the add/subtract unit and the multiply/accumulate unit, the shifter supplying data to the write port of the data memory; wherein the apparatus performs these calculations in four cycles of the add/subtract unit and in four cycles of the multiply/accumulate unit, using complex arithmetic.