1. A wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU) for use in decoding wireless communication signals comprising: an iterative turbo decoder configured to correct communication signal data errors by recursively evaluating signal data for a selected number of iterations; the decoder including: a decoder data memory configured to store turbo decoder estimate data generated for one decoding iteration; a signature memory configured to store a code signature corresponding to turbo decoder estimate data generated for one decoding iteration; a decoder circuit configured to produce turbo decoder estimate data for each iteration of decoding and to store the produced turbo decoder estimate data in said decoder data memory; a signature code generating circuit configured to generate a code signature corresponding to turbo decoder estimate data for each decoder iteration such that each code signature is at least twenty times smaller than the corresponding turbo decoder estimate data; and a comparator, operatively associated with the signature code generating circuit and the decoder circuit, configured to compare a generated code signature with a stored code signature such that if the comparison reflects equality, the decoder circuit ceases iteration processing and if the comparison reflects inequality, the generated code signature is stored in the signature memory where it is available for comparison relative to a code signature for a next decoder iteration.