Software radio and reconfigurable systems represent reconfigurable functionalities of the radio interface. Considering turbo decoding function in battery-powered devices like 3GPP mobile terminals, it would be desirable to choose the optimum decoding algorithm: SOVA in terms of latency, and log-MAP in terms of performance. In this paper it is shown that the two algorithms share common operations, making feasible a reconfigurable SOVA/log-MAP turbo decoder with increased efficiency. Moreover, an improvement in the performance of the reconfigurable architecture is also possible at minimum cost, by scaling the extrinsic information with a common factor. The implementation of the improved reconfigurable decoder within the 3GPP standard is also discussed, considering different scenarios. In each scenario various frame lengths are evaluated, while the four possible service classes are applied. In the case of AWGN channels, the optimum algorithm is proposed according to the desired quality of service of each class, which is determined from latency and performance constraints. Our analysis shows the potential utility of the reconfigurable decoder, since there is an optimum algorithm for most scenarios.