A new method is proposed to achieve a multirate overlapped code division multiple access system (OV-CDMA) based on a novel code overlapping procedure. The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) performance has been investigated for such system. A channel model that allows multirate overlapped transmission is presented based on which a closed form solution for the SIR has been derived. In addition, a simple yet very efficient block diagram of the transmitter and the receiver architecture has been proposed for such a system. Based on the proposed block diagram, the encoder-decoder has been implemented using an FPGA. Numerical results show that the newly proposed OV-CDMA scheme outperforms the classical variable processing gain fast frequency hopping CDMA (VPG-FFH-CDMA) for different system scenarios. Finally, real-time measurements have been successfully obtained using a hardware prototype utilizing the simple Xilinx Spartan IIE (XC2S200E) FPGA.