The authors present conditions on the error sequences between channel input sequences which guarantee certain lower bounds on the free Euclidian distance at the output of a partial-response (PR) class I or II channel. From these expressions, trellis codes are derived which improve performance of binary signaling over noisy PR channels with reduced complexity maximum-likelihood sequence detection. They are shown to be compatible with the input restriction caused by the magnetooptical resonant coil direct overwrite recording scheme. The codes achieve high signal-to-noise ratio coding gains of 3 dB (on PR class I) and 2.2 dB (on PR class II) with rates as close to, but strictly less than, the capacity of the initial input restriction as desired. The performance of these codes is analyzed with an optical channel simulation system which shows that one code has the rare but highly desirable property that its maximum-likelihood sequence detector (MLSD) is less complex than the MLSD of the reference system and still achieves an error rate performance gain of 1.8 dB.>

The author outlines the technology used in the optical recording channel concentrating on magnetooptical recording and describes some of the major formats, codes, and data detection methods which are being developed. A sophisticated model of the optical recording channel was used as a way to make fair comparisons of these candidates, without skewing the results because of different disk or drive quality, degrees of hardware development, test procedures, etc. The author describes strengths and weaknesses of some of the leading contenders for current and future optical recording channels.>