In this work, a model for digital magnetic recording on thin-film medi
a is developed, and the performances of several detector/run-length-li
mited code combinations are compared under different densities, media
noise, offtrack interference, and channel mismatch conditions. The stu
dy is based on computer simulations using an experimentally extracted
transition response of a magnetoresistive read head. The detection alg
orithms considered include the partial response maximum likelihood det
ectors, decision feedback equalizer (DFE), and fixed-delay tree search
with decision feedback (FDTS/DF) detector. It was found that the DFE
with a (0, k) run-length-limited (RLL) code and the FDTS/DF with a (1,
7) RLL code show the least bit error rate degradation, as the user de
nsity increases beyond 2.5 bits/PW50. The PRML and DFE suffer less fro
m offtrack interference. The (0, fi) coded DFE and the (1,7) coded EPR
ML and FDTS/DF channels are relatively robust under PW50 mismatch. At
a user density of 2.5, FDTS/DF (1, 7) and DFE; (0, k) are found to yie
ld the best bit error performance under varying intensities of white G
aussian noise and media noise.