International Business Machines Corporation

Lyle J Fredrickson

James Wilson Rae

Razmik Karabed

Roger William Wood

Paul H Siegel

Hemant K Thapar

Viterbi trellis coding methods and Viterbi detector apparatus are provided for detecting trellis coded data. A systolic array Viterbi detector recursively calculates path metrics and partial sums of metric update equations to determine codeword sequences having minimum mean squared error for Viterbi-type maximum-likelihood data detection. The systolic array Viterbi detector is arranged to eliminate redundant calculations and simplify hardware requirements. Modified butterfly trellis geometries and rotating state metrics arrangements are provided for simplifying the Viterbi detector.

Viterbi trellis coding methods and apparatus for a direct access storage

A method and apparatus for detecting spectral null sequences of a spectrally-constrained code on a noisy communications channel. From a Viterbi detector with a trellis structure comprising a plurality of states and edges, predetermined ones of the states and edges in the trellis structure are deleted at preselected times modulo N, such as times .phi. modulo N and/or at intermediate times m modulo N, where m=.phi., thereby to create a time-varying trellis structure for limiting the maximum length of dominant error events. The deleted edges are generally those edges which would have entered or emanated from the deleted states if they were not deleted. The trellis structure may be a so-called systolic structure, in which case the spectral null sequences are preferably DC-free or Nyquist free.

Time-varying Viterbi detector for control of error event length

A method and apparatus for generating high rate run length limited trellis codes and increasing minimum distance between output sequences of partial response channels with constrained channel inputs without requiring codes with spectral nulls. A Viterbi detector replicates a conventional trellis structure for the channel N times. The N copies of the channel response trellis are interconnected such that a preselected function associates each state in the trellis with a particular integer value modulo N. The number N is selected according to the channel detection and coding constraints so that diverging erroneous sequences of minimum distance lead to detector states which are distinct from the correct detector state. The detector trellis is time-varying such that only certain values of the preselected function are allowed every m bits. The time-variation assures there are no minimum distance extensions of erroneous sequences beyond a predetermined length. Reliability of storage channels is desirably increased, because more noise is required to overcome the additional distance and cause an error in distinguishing the correct encoded sequence.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Lyle J Fredrickson