Practical equalizer for a perpendicular magnetic disk

We have developed a readback equalizer for a perpendicular magnetic disk with a commercial anisotropic magnetoresistive head for use with a PR4ML read channel with 8-9 coding. The transfer function of the perpendicular magnetic disk, derived by Fourier analysis, has a phase lag of 90° from that of the longitudinal magnetic disk. We defined the parameters of the equalizer by simulation. The equalized readback signal nearly satisfied Nyquist´s first criterion. Using resistor-capacitor circuits that correspond to the simulated function, we obtained a byte-error rate of below 10^-7. Comparing the effect of incorporating PR4 or PR1 as part of the equalizer, we observed that PR4 gave a lower bit-error rate than PR1. Thus, PR4 is an effective detection method for a perpendicular magnetic disk. It is suitable not only for longitudinal magnetic disks, but also for perpendicular magnetic disks.