A method and apparatus for using a multi-user detector for reducing multiple access interference (MAI) in a direct sequence CDMA wireless system such as W-CDMA. A superconducting rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) RF digital receiver operating in combination with an RSFQ successive interference canceller (SIC) is located in the base stations of the wireless system. In the present invention, the RSFQ SIC is a vector machine capable of processing the cross-correlation matrices using an iterative method to decorrelate the user binary code sequences from the input signal in which the interference components are removed. According, the reduction in interference results in a significant increase in system capacity while improving cellular coverage area.