Apparatus and method contemplating an in-situ test method for a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The method includes individually exciting a pair of opposing-effect microactuators supporting the read/write head adjacent a data storage media; summing the outputs from the microactuators to derive a spectral frequency response of the HGA; determining a resonant frequency from the spectral frequency response; driving the microactuators at the resonant frequency; and varying the read/write fly height apart from the data storage media to correlate contact with a maximum response of the microactuators.

A reproducing device includes decoding processors and output controllers, and performs synchronous reproduction for reproducing a content item decoded by one of the decoding processors by at least two of the output controllers and separate reproduction for reproducing the content item decoded by one of the decoding processors by one of the output controllers. The reproducing device includes: a manager that manages an allowed number of reproductions of the content item; a determiner that determines, when a reproduction instruction is given, based on the allowed number of reproductions of the content item, whether the separate reproduction is possible and whether the synchronous reproduction is possible; and a controller that performs the separate or synchronous reproduction, based on the determination. The manager decrements by one the allowed number of reproductions of the content item when the separate reproduction is performed, and does not decrement it when the synchronous reproduction is performed.

Apparatus and method contemplating an in-situ test method for a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The method includes individually exciting a pair of opposing-effect microactuators supporting the read/write head adjacent a data storage media; summing the outputs from the microactuators to derive a spectral frequency response of the HGA; determining a resonant frequency from the spectral frequency response; driving the microactuators at the resonant frequency; and varying the read/write fly height apart from the data storage media to correlate contact with a maximum response of the microactuators.

Systems and methods for providing an output signal based at least in part upon an input signal and a clock signal in a manner in which jitter is avoided or diminished, including for example a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), are disclosed herein. In one example embodiment, such a system includes an output signal generating component, a first component having a first switch and a variable characteristic, and a plurality of second components each having a respective additional switch and a respective fixed characteristic. A value of the variable characteristic is set at least in part based upon input and clock signals so that, when the variable characteristic influences at least indirectly the generating of the output signal by the output signal generating component, the output signal attains a first level that at least indirectly depends upon a phase of the clock signal relative to the input signal.

According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording and reproducing device includes a magnetic recording medium, a magnetic head, and a processor. The magnetic head includes a first reproducing element portion and a second reproducing element portion. The processor is configured to acquire a first signal and a second signal, and to output an output signal according to either one of the first signal and the second signal. The first signal is obtained by reproducing information recorded on a first recording region by the first reproducing element portion. The second signal is obtained by reproducing the information recorded on the first recording region by the second reproducing element portion.

Embodiments are related to systems and methods for data processing, and more particularly to systems and methods for multiple codeword processing in a data processing system. An illustrative data processing system includes a processing circuit that processes unprocessed codewords, and provides failed codewords when the processing fails to converge. The system may further include an input buffer circuit that selectively stores a combination of at least one of the unprocessed codewords and at least one of the failed codewords. The input buffer circuit includes a first portion that maintains any of the unprocessed codewords and the failed codewords, and a second portion that maintains only the failed codewords.

Embodiments of the present inventions are related to systems and methods for data processing, and more particularly to systems and methods for recovering data where synchronization information is not detected.

An apparatus for processing data includes a data detector configured to detect data values in data sectors to yield detected data, a data decoder configured to decode the detected data, wherein the data detector and the data decoder are configured to process the data sectors in a series of global iterations, a memory configured to store parity sector soft information, and a scheduler configured to control overlapping reprocessing of a failed sector in the data detector and the data decoder based on the parity sector soft information with processing of another data sector in the data detector and the data decoder.

An apparatus for two-dimensional magnetic recording includes an array reader comprising a number of read sensors configured to read data from at least one track on a storage medium, a number of two-dimensional equalizer circuits each comprising inputs for receiving signals derived from each of the read sensors, each comprising an equalized output, and a number of iterative inter-track interference cancellation circuits, each operable to cancel inter-track interference in a different one of the equalized outputs from the two-dimensional equalizer circuits.

A system includes a first sync mark detector circuit operable to apply a first sync mark detection algorithm to search a received media sector and overhead for a second sync mark after a failure to identify a first sync mark. A second sync mark detector circuit operable to apply a second sync mark detection algorithm to search the received media sector and overhead for the second sync mark. An anchor point identification circuit identifies an anchor point in the received media sector. A retry controller circuit causes a re-read of the received media sector and overhead when the first sync mark detector circuit fails to identify the first sync mark, and aligns the received media sector to yield an aligned media sector. A data processing circuit recovers an original user data set from the aligned media sector.