The minimum distance for digital magnetic recording partial responses

The main result is the finding of the minimum distance, d_min, for m-ary signals over a class of partial responses of interest in the field of digital magnetic recording. A previously published set of results (see H.K. Thapar and A.M. Patel, 1987) on d_min for a related class of partial responses relevant to the coaxial cable channel is extended. A simple, powerful algorithm for finding d_min is employed. A secondary result is given in a table, which extends a previously published table (see G.J. Foschini, 1975), reporting a solution to the corresponding problem for coaxial cable partial responses.