Computer-based modeling of the digital magnetic recording channel

The self-consistent iterative simulation of the digital magnetic recording channel has been established as the most powerful and the only adequate treatment of high bit density systems with a limiting write-demagnetization process. By a comprehensive treatment of the wavelength and frequency-dependent losses in the transducer, the media, and the circuits of the recording channel, the one dimensional model, applicable for relatively thin media which are a requirement for very high bit density systems, has been developed into a versatile and powerful tool for the automated design of advanced recording systems. The skeleton of the computational formalism is presented, along with some pertinent results regarding the nature of limitations in high bit density systems.