BIT-SHIFT PERFORMANCE INVESTIGATIONS AT DIFFERENT SKEW ANGLES AND FORDIFFERENT MEDIA ORIENTATIONS

Bit-shift performance was investigated at different skew angles and fo r media with different orientation. Results indicate that the bit-shif t value increases as the skew angle increases for both planar orientat ed media and near-isotropic media. As the skew angle increases, the of f-track capability, described by the bit shift at different off-track distances, decreases and the bit-shift profile becomes asymmetric. Com parison of normalized bit-shift values (normalized according to the bi t shift at 0 degrees skew angle) shows that the bit shift of the near- isotropic media is not as sensitive to skew angle variation as the med ia with strong orientation. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.