Abstract: A method of forming a top pole member in a magnetic recording head having a bottom pole member, an insulating layer on said bottom pole member, and a shared pole member over the bottom pole member on a ceramic substrate comprises the steps of depositing a ferromagnetic material on the shared pole portion forming a shared pole tip; depositing an insulating layer on and over the shared pole and the shared pole tip; mechanically forming a planar insulating layer surface over the shared pole member exposing the shared pole tip flush with said planar surface; recessing the pole tip below said planar surface; depositing a gap layer over the planar surface of the insulating layer and the recessed pole tip. This layer forms a channel over the recessed pole tip. The top pole member is then deposited into and over the channel over the recessed pole tip. The top pole tip thus formed is automatically centered and aligned with the shared pole tip without the necessity of ion beam milling.

Abstract: An integrated circuit first-in, first-out ("FIFO") memory device comprises an input bus for receiving data, an input buffer coupled to the input bus for storing the data and at least one dynamic random access memory ("DRAM") array coupled to the input buffer. A write pointer is operative for storing the data in the input buffer to a location within the memory array indicated and an output bus is coupled to the memory array and a read pointer for providing previously written data from the memory array at a location indicated by the read pointer. In a preferred embodiment, the FIFO further comprises at least one static random access memory ("SRAM") cache interposed between the input and output buses and the memory array having a width corresponding to each row of the memory array. In an alternative embodiment, the FIFO memory device includes a "Retransmit" feature which allows data to be read from the device multiple times as well as the Read Pointer to be selectively placed under user control.