A system and method for interleaving data in a wireless transmitter are disclosed, where bits from the input data stream are sent to downstream processing without being stored in memory. According to a first example embodiment, a first radio frame of data from an input code block is sent downstream, and the remaining radio frames from the code block are stored in the memory buffer. The first interleaving pattern can be applied, for example, as data is written to or read from the buffer. The stored radio frames are then read out as needed by the downstream processing. According to a second example embodiment, further savings in memory can be achieved by discarding bits that are not currently needed for processing then recalculating them at a later time. A first radio frame of data from an input code block is sent downstream without being stored in the memory buffer.