Example systems, data storage devices, testers, and methods for storage device configuration using mutual information are described. A data storage device may include channel circuit configuration settings for the encoding and decoding of data written to a non-volatile storage medium. Mutual information metrics may be calculated based on a multi-bit symbol size to compensate for inter-symbol interference and compared to mutual information thresholds to determine the configuration settings, such as bit and track densities, error correction codes, and modulation codes. Mutual information metrics may be used to characterize heads and media independent of the configuration settings.

Example systems, data storage devices, testers, and methods for storage device configuration using symbol context mutual information are described. A data storage device may include channel circuit configuration settings for the encoding and decoding of data written to a non-volatile storage medium. The configuration settings may be determined by determining a known pattern for a sector, determining a series of symbol contexts, determining mutual information for each symbol context, and using the symbol context mutual information to determine relationships among configuration settings, such as bit size, error correction code rate, and modulation code. Once determined, the configuration settings may be used to configure the modulation code and ECC rate for the channel circuit of the data storage device.

Example systems, data storage devices, testers, and methods for storage device configuration using symbol context mutual information are described. A data storage device may include channel circuit configuration settings for the encoding and decoding of data written to a non-volatile storage medium. The configuration settings may be determined by determining a known pattern for a sector, determining a series of symbol contexts, determining mutual information for each symbol context, and using the symbol context mutual information to determine relationships among configuration settings, such as bit size, error correction code rate, and modulation code. Once determined, the configuration settings may be used to configure the modulation code and ECC rate for the channel circuit of the data storage device.

Example systems, data storage devices, testers, and methods for storage device configuration using mutual information are described. A data storage device may include channel circuit configuration settings for the encoding and decoding of data written to a non-volatile storage medium. Mutual information metrics may be calculated based on a multi-bit symbol size to compensate for inter-symbol interference and compared to mutual information thresholds to determine the configuration settings, such as bit and track densities, error correction codes, and modulation codes. Mutual information metrics may be used to characterize heads and media independent of the configuration settings.