Hereafter, we present an approach1 dealing to improve the reliability of digital signal processing (DSP) systems operating in real noisy (electromagnetic interference — EMI) environments. The approach is based on the coupling of two techniques: the "DSP-oriented signal integrity improvement" technique deals to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and is essentially a modification of the classic Recovery Blocks Scheme. The second technique, named "SW-based fault handling" aims to detect in real-time data- and control-flow faults throughout modifications of the processor C-code. When compared to conventional approaches using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Hamming Code, the primary benefit of such an approach is to improve system reliability by means of a considerably low complexity, reasonably low performance degradation and, when implemented in hardware, with reduced area overhead. Aiming to illustrate the proposed approach, we present a case study for a speech recognition system, which was partially implemented in a PC microcomputer and in a COTS microcontroller. This system was tested under a home-tailored EMI environment according to the International Standard Normative IEC 61.000-4-29. The obtained results indicate that the proposed approach can effectively improve the reliability of DSP systems operating in real noise (EMI) environments.