Rate 8/9 sliding block distance-enhancing code with stationary detector

A new distance-enhancing code for partial-response magnetic recording channels eliminates most frequent errors, while keeping the two-step code trellis time invariant. Recently, published trellis codes either have lower code rates or result in time-varying trellises with a period of nine, thus requiring a higher complexity of detectors and code synchronization. The new code introduces dependency between code words in order to achieve the same coding constraints as the 8/9 time-varying maximum transition runlength (TMTR) code, with the same code rate, but resulting in a trellis that has a period of 2. This code has been applied to the E/sup 2/PR4 and a 32-state generalized partial response (GPR) ISI target. The resulting two-step trellises have 14 and 28 states, respectively. Coding gain is demonstrated for both targets in additive white Gaussian noise.