BER performance comparisons in digital tape recording

Bit-error-rate (BER) performances of various DC free coding and detection methods have been compared in digital tape recording environments. Performance sensitivities to additive noise, head-tape space variations and offtrack interference have been investigated at two representative linear densities. The results indicate that the performance ranking of different techniques depends strongly on the type of interference assumed in the channel. In particular, the fixed delay tree search with decision feedback (FDTS/DF) detector used in conjunction with the rate 8/10 code performs comparably to or better than the partial response maximum likelihood technique combined with the rate 24/25 code in all cases considered, despite the significantly lower code rate