A programmable decoder includes at least one programming input for a plurality of programmable, reduced state trellis parameters. A programmable device is connected to the at least one programming input and implements a Reduced-State Sequence Estimation (RSSE) decoder comprising at least one reduced-state trellis structure based upon the plurality of programmable reduced-state trellis parameters, including one of at least the number of super-states, the number of full-states, the number of branches per super-state, a reverse super-state trellis table, a decoder super-state survivor as a full-state, a forward full-state table, a full-state to super-state mapping table, a decoder super-state path metric and decoder super-state traceback array.