Abstract: The present invention is directed to a detector for a high-density magnetic recording channel and other partial response channels. The present invention presents a method for decoding a high rate product code and a decoder which uses this method, comprising receiving a high rate product code; using a row detector to find a most likely codeword and a most likely error sequence for each row; and using a column processor to correct any remaining errors based on column parity bits and the most likely error sequence of each row. In a first aspect of the present invention, the row detector is implemented through a 2-VA detector. In a second aspect of the present invention, the row detector is implemented through a conventional VA detector and a hank of matched filters.

Abstract: The present invention describes a system and method for encoding a sequence of 64 bit digital data words into a sequence of 65 bit codewords having constraints of (d=0, G=11/I=10) for recording upon a magnetic medium within a magnetic recording channel are disclosed. The method for encoding a sequence of 64 bit digital data words into a sequence of codewords having 65 bits, comprising the steps of dividing each 64-bit digital data word into 8-bit bytes, encoding two 8-bit bytes to form a 17-bit word, forming five 11-bit intermediate blocks from the 8-bit bytes, encoding the five 11-bit intermediate blocks, and concatenating the five encoded 11-bit intermediate blocks and uncoded and unconstrained bits from the 64 bit digital data word to form a 65 bit codeword. A corresponding decoding method is also described. A byte shuffler may be used in the processing.