Telecommunications controllers worldwide are becoming increasingly stored-program oriented. Electromechanical and electronic wired logic controllers lack the flexibility, maintainability, and (ultimately) the economy of stored program processors. While similar to commercial computers, most stored program telecommunications processors have features unique either in nature or degree of application. There also exists a remarkable variety of overall architectural features which are useful in telecommunications applications, and a similar variety of administrations and manufacturers willing to espouse them. Pertinent stored program processor architectural features are discussed as a dass, then extant and proposed processors are described and placed in perspective, Finally, likely future trends are discussed.