A Viterbi/Turbo unified decoder supports both voice and data streams due to the ability of performing Viterbi (convolutional) decoding and Turbo decoding. The Viterbi/Turbo unified decoder of an embodiment reduces the hardware cost by computing path metrics for both Viterbi and Turbo decoding using a single control circuit. The control circuit comprises a plurality of processors and memory banks, and the routing rule for the processors to read/write the path metric information from/to the memory banks are fixed for both Viterbi and Turbo coded inputs.