An adaptive algorithm for reducing the hardware complexity is presented. This paper proposes a modified LMS algorithm for the adaptive system and analyzes its convergence characteristics mathematically. An objective of the proposed algorithm is to reduce the hardware complexity. In order to test the performances, it is applied to the echo canceller, and a program is described. The results from simulations show that the echo canceller adopting the proposed algorithm achieves almost the same performances as one adopting the NLMS algorithm. If an echo canceller is implemented with this algorithm, its computation quantities are reduced to the one third as many as the one that is implemented with the NLMS algorithm, without so much degradation of performances.