A synchronizer for telecommunications signals includes a telecommunications interface for receiving bits of a telecommunications signal having a frame, an SRAM which stores bit-defined states for a plurality of bit locations in the frame, a state update lookup table for changing the states for a plurality of the frame bit locations of the SRAM based on a previous state and based on an incoming bit of the telecommunications signal, and frame location identification logic for determining the location of the overhead bit of the telecommunications signal frame based on the states of the plurality of bit locations. In a first embodiment, the SRAM is an x by y bit SRAM, where x equals the number of bits in the frame, and y is large enough so that the number of possible states .ltoreq.2.sup.Y. In a second embodiment, the bit locations are divided into a plurality of subgroups or stages, and the SRAM is at least an Int (x/s) by y bit SRAM, where s is an integer greater than one which represents the number of stages of the state machine, and Int (x/s) is the quotient x/s rounded up. In the second embodiment, after the state of a bit location in a first stage reaches a predetermined value, the bits of an associated frame location are used for state updates in a second stage.