In one or more aspects, the present invention improves the efficiency of soft information transfer within a soft-value processing apparatus, by reducing in some sense the “amount” of soft information transferred between constituent processor circuits within the apparatus, without forfeiting or otherwise compromising the transfer of “valuable” soft information. In one example, the soft values produced by a constituent processor circuit are identified as being reliable or unreliable according to a reliability threshold. Some or all of the unreliable values are omitted from a soft value information transfer to another constituent processor circuit, or they are quantized for such transfer. The reduction in memory requirements for soft information transfer advantageously allows the use of lower power, less complex, and less expensive circuitry than would otherwise be required in the apparatus, which may be, as a non-limiting example, a Turbo receiver in a wireless communication device.