Iterative data storage read channel architecture having dropout mitigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8964321-B2
Application number	US-201313907759-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2013
Priority date	May 31, 2013
Publication date	Feb 24, 2015
Grant date	Feb 24, 2015

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a magnetic medium's readback signal samples are processed iteratively to provide dropout mitigation for a read channel by feeding the decoder output decisions back to the read channel front end where they are used to drive the decision-aided digital signal processing functions and control loops. Since data decisions provided by the decoder are typically more reliable than those provided by the detector, a significant performance improvement is obtained. A more reliable operation of the digital front-end signal processing functions in turn allows improvements to the reliability of the decoded data. Usage of Error Correcting Code (ECC) schemes that are soft decodable makes the read channel technique, described according to various embodiments herein, particularly efficient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for dropout mitigation in an iterative read channel, the system comprising a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to:
execute dropout detection on a block of signal samples to detect one or more dropout events employing a set of decisions provided by a detector executing a detection algorithm;
execute one or more additional digital front-end (DFE) functions on the block of signal sample…

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cideciyan Roy D
• Hutchins Robert A
• Mittelholzer Thomas
• Oelcer Sedat

Classifications

• G11B20/10046 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G11B2020/185

  Physics · mapped topic

• G11B20/1833

  Physics · mapped topic

• G11B20/10009 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G11B27/30

  Physics · mapped topic