Turbo decoder employing ARP (almost regular permutation) interleave and arbitrary number of decoding processors. A novel approach is presented herein by which an arbitrarily selected number (M) of decoding processors (e.g., a plurality of parallel implemented turbo decoders) be employed to perform decoding of a turbo coded signal while still using a selected embodiment of an ARP (almost regular permutation) interleave. The desired number of decoding processors is selected, and very slight modification of an information block (thereby generating a virtual information block) is made to accommodate that virtual information block across all of the decoding processors during all decoding cycles except some dummy decoding cycles. In addition, contention-free memory mapping is provided between the decoding processors (e.g., a plurality of turbo decoders) and memory banks (e.g., a plurality of memories).