Abstract

Large-capacity optical tape systems are attractive for archival storage of large databases [1,2] maintained by the government, insurance companies, etc. The recent increase in demand for storage space, created by the popularity of the world wide web, is expected to provide tape systems a significant share in the commercial market as well. Innovations in tape readback mechanisms [2-6] have resulted in increased data rates. One such technique employs an optical head mounted on a scanner which is moving rapidly over the tape in a zig-zag manner, thus multiplexing the readback from several tracks. The non-uniform speed of the scanner gives rise to a rapidly varying channel response, which makes the scanner head readback different from one having a constant speed or whose speed varies relatively slowly. It is to be expected that the equalization and data detection techniques that are known to work well in systems using the latter heads may need to be either modified or entirely substituted by novel methods when a scanner head is used. Our research aims to identify these implications by means of a software simulator that emulates a scanner based optical tape data channel.

© 1998 Optical Society of America