SOFTWARE CHANNEL APPROACH TO DATA BANDING

A software channel is used to study the capacity gains made possible by data banding. Data banding increases the data rate in steps as the head moves from ID to OD to keep the linear bit density more nearly constant. The software channel is used for this experiment because of the ease in changing data rates, codes, and optimizing other channel parameters for each band. The components studied are a MIG head of track width 9.1 µm on a thin film disk of 900 Oe coercivity. The projected gains in disk storage capacity using 5 data bands, an error rate criteria for maximum data rate, and optimization of channel parameters for each band vary between 15 and 27% depending on code and the use of equalization. © 1990 IEEE