Simultaneous detection of readback signals from interfering magnetic recording tracks using array heads

A maximum-likelihood detector for interfering channels is described. Attention is given to the cases of array heads reading several tracks simultaneously as well as to a single head suffering from crosstalk from adjacent tracks. An interesting case is that of two tracks being read by three heads. Simple examples of partial-response channels with no frequency distortion across tracks are given and performances are calculated. It is shown that for a small amount of crosstalk, an improvement in performance over the no-interference case is possible. It is also shown that the use of the detector to counter crosstalk when only a single head is present can yield substantial gains over the case where the detection ignores crosstalk. The potential of two-dimensional trellis coding is also shown